A month after a similar allegation involving the Duke University volleyball team, new allegations surfaced of the use of racist slurs at a BYU sporting event.
Five women’s soccer players on the visiting team told The Guardian they heard the N-word directed at them and their teammates from the crowd during a game at BYU in 2021. They say they heard screams from the crowd.
“I remember a consistent chant of ‘Stand up, the N word’ during and immediately after the anthem,” one of the players told The Guardian. There was no real reaction or sense of alarm.”
She added: The backlash against kneeling was nothing new to our group, but hearing it first hand was shocking. This again indicates that this may be part of a larger cultural issue within BYU as an institution. ”
Four of her teammates independently confirmed to the Guardian that they also heard the chant.
A sixth member of the team did not hear the chant, but the BYU coach says he was told about it. The coach “seemed shocked and asked” for another announcement to be made about how the fans should behave. A warning announcement was made, but said, “To my knowledge, nothing else has been done.” The players of the away team wanted to continue the match, so we proceeded.
Guardians have withheld the identity of sources at their request to protect them from retaliation.
“Your inquiry is the first time we’ve heard of this specific concern,” said John McBride, associate athletic director of communications and media strategy at BYU, in response to a request for comment.[At] match that occurred [in 2021]BYU responded to concerns from [visiting team] Fan reaction when a player kneels during the national anthem. With official announcements similar to those made before, repeating a reminder to pay respects to the fans, the game went on. We are not aware of any additional concerns raised during or after the game. As we stated, BYU does not tolerate any form of racism. ”
The allegation comes a month after another racism allegation involving the BYU crowd. In August, Duke University volleyball player Rachel Richardson said authorities didn’t respond quickly enough when she was subjected to racist slurs and abuse reports during a game at BYU.
and Twitter statement at the time Richardson writes: The slander and comments escalated into threats and made us feel unsafe.BYU officials and coaching staff were both aware of the incident during the game, but they needed to stop the unacceptable behavior and create a safe environment. could not take any action.
BYU Athletic Director Tom Holmo met with Richardson and the college made some changes to its fan code of conduct. BYU has since banned fans from all sporting events. However, that ban was rescinded after BYU reviewed the video and audio recordings of the match and spoke with people who attended the match.
In a statement about the Duke incident, BYU said, “After our extensive investigation, we found no evidence to support allegations that fans engaged in racial taunting or uttered racial slurs at the event. “As stated earlier, we will not tolerate behavior that endangers student-athletes. That is the reason for our prompt response and thorough investigation.”
Comments
Post a Comment