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A Duke University women’s volleyball player was allegedly harassed by a fan with a racial slur while playing in a game against Brigham Young University in Utah on Friday, according to BYU.
The fan, who was not a student, was sitting in the BYU student section, and was identified by Duke during the game, according to BYU. The fan has since been banned from all BYU athletic venues.
« To say we are extremely disheartened in the actions of a small number of fans in last night’s volleyball game in the Smith Fieldhouse between BYU and Duke is not strong enough language, » BYU said in a statement. « We will not tolerate behavior of this kind. Specifically, the use of a racial slur at any of our athletic events is absolutely unacceptable and BYU Athletics holds a zero-tolerance approach to this behavior. We wholeheartedly apologize to Duke University and especially its student-athletes competing last night for what they experienced. »
Rachel Richardson, who is Black, is a sophomore at Duke and was the target of the alleged racial slurs. Richardson heard the slur « every time she served, » according to former Texas county prosecutor Lesa Pamplin, who is running for county judge and said Richardson is her goddaughter in a tweet posted on Saturday.
« She was threatened by a white male that told her to watch her back going to the team bus.
