Just believe it happened and don’t ask questions. That is often the attitude.
You’ve heard the story before, an athlete on the court or sidelines claims they were called a racial slur, the accused are castigated and torn up and down online, an investigation is done, then the next race hoax has made the headlines. However, the damage has been done to the accused, and they are still perceived as racist by many who did not watch closely enough, or won’t let go of the hoax.
That is the case now with Angel Reese after the dust up with Caitlin Clark, and it was the case when Luke Hanson and I revealed at The Cougar Chronicle that Duke volleyball player Rachel Richardson was not called a racial slur during a game against BYU in 2022.
As a cofounder of the news outlet and graduate of BYU, I can tell you firsthand, the likelihood that you will catch someone yelling the n-word repeatedly on campus, as it was claimed by Richardson’s family, is slim to none. People turn their heads there if they hear students yelling profanity of any kind, let alone the racial slur.
However, the mainstream media, in both cases, as well as others outside of the situation, bought into the lie from the start.
In the case of Reese, an “anonymous source” spoke to the Associated Press about an investigation into racial slurs being directed at Reese from the Indiana Fever fans.
Based on the Associated Press report, ABC News, wrote in its headline: “WNBA investigates racial slurs by fans made at Angel Reese during Indiana game” without so much as a “:report” at the end of their headline. Generally, reports about accusations based on one anonymous source need to be hedged. The subtitle from ABC News stated: “Racial comments were directed at Reese by fans during the Chicago Sky’s loss.”
The false credibility spreads like wildfire, in media reports and online, whipping people into a frenzy over allegations later found to be unsubstantiated.
In the case of Richardson, her godmother, Lesa Pamplin, made multiple accusations that turned out to be entirely false, including that Richardson was “called a nr every time she served” as well as that she was “threatened by a white male that told her to watch her