Duke Volleyball Player Targeted with Racial Slurs During Game: 'She Felt Afraid'

Mar. 15, 2025

Photo: Duke University

Marvin Richardson, the father of 19-year-old Duke University student Rachel Richardson, is criticizing officials after his daughter wasthe target of racial slursduring a volleyball match last week.

“Whoever is the adult in charge should have intervened at that time,” Marvin told the news station.

PEOPLE reached out to representatives of Duke for comment on Tuesday. In an email, a BYU representative said the school continues “to express our sympathy for what the Duke student-athletes experienced Friday night.”

“Racism is wrong, and there is no place for it at BYU or anywhere,” they added. “BYU has spent countless hours examining what happened Friday night and we continue to look at how the events transpired and what we can learn and do differently in the future.”

Rachel talked about the incident ina statement postedto her Twitter account on Sunday afternoon where she said she and other Black members of her team were “targeted and racially heckled” during the game.

Marvin said Rachel called him crying and told him a police officer had been asked to stand next to other BYU fans who had been yelling during the game.

“You stop that behavior immediately. I’ve seen coaches grab the microphone and say knock it off and if they don’t knock it off, get out. If you don’t get out, we’ll get you out. That’s the right thing to do at a sporting venue,” Marvin said. “That did not happen.”

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“You have to call racism out at every turn,” he said. “You can’t give ignorance a pass.”

Rachel said in her post that her intention is not “to call BYU’s athletics out but rather to call them up.”

“This is an opportunity to dig deep into closed cultures which tolerate amoral racial acts, such as those exhibited Friday night, and change them for the better,” she said.

source: people.com