Perhaps lynch mob was the wrong term to use in this context. It was the first thing that came to mind from seeing people call for the “death” of sports at BYU.
In the west, not all hangings had racist overtones. There was quite a bit of vigilante justice for cattle rustling, etc. that also resulted in death by lynching.
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No, because the Duke lacrosse scandal was 16 years ago and the prosecutor was eventually himself imprisoned. I have no doubt BYU would try to hide this if it was possible given their past conduct.
“Rachel was the first one who told all of us,” said Barrow, a reserve who didn’t see any game action at BYU. “And even at first, when she first heard it, she was kind of confused like that, ‘Did I just hear that?’ And then when she heard it a second, third, continuous times, she was like, ‘Oh, I’m definitely hearing that.’ And that’s when we made our coaches aware of everything.”
https://www.newsobserver.com/sports/college/acc/duke/article265545666.html#storylink=cpy
Either this was a well designed, pre-meditated hit job on BYU, and/or Rachel Richardson is a psychotic who distracted her coaches with a bogus story during the match, or…
There’s something more to this.
Having watched Holly Rowe’s interview of Richardson, I have to go with the third option. She was very complimentary of Holmoe and BYU, which undercuts any notion this was malicious.
I think Rocker’s example of the new car owner suddenly seeing more of that model of car may be applicable here. Richardson has a finer ear for hearing topics on this issue than I do.
(My wife has much better hearing on this topic, as well. And others, too, of course. 
There have been a few times where she thought she heard a slur, and I was unaware, but the dirty look from the offender seemed to back her up. A few obvious times I’ve definitely heard the slur, like some haole redneck on the road up to Haleakala yelling the n-word out his car at us… definitely wrecking the Aloha vibe.)
If Richardson simply wanted to do a hit job on BYU, why the repetition, why drag your teammates and coaches into it?
Also agree this has been poorly handled, no matter the origin. Now BYU is tacitly calling Richardson nuts or malicious.
What a PR disaster.
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Definitely NOT a BYU fan. I have had my bellyful of them over the years dating back to 1988 when I attended my first Utah-BYU game at then-Rice Stadium.
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I have no reason to not believe that Richardson believes she heard racial slurs directed at her. Her actions at the time support her beliefs.
I believe BYU mishandled almost every public statement and action from the beginning, although I think Holmoe was sincere in his statements. IMO, BYU should have immediately sought out an experienced outside/independent group to conduct the investigation. Even if that entity had the same findings, it would eliminate the appearance of an inept, incomplete or unbiased investigation.
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Impressive words by former Y FB player Derwin Gray:
Hopefully Gray’s words have a positive impact. He’s an interesting voice as a pastor, but this incident gives him a platform to add his perspective, one I think is needed on a topic many in the BYU ecosystem simply struggle to understand.
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This needs to be on a shirt or billboard. 
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Where’s Roscoe Mendenhall when you need him? 
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It makes so much sense. That they refused to do it only raises more suspicion in the public’s mind.
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Cool. Can they now release the reports on the other accusations of Racism on their campus and what they are doing to correct that? There is still plausibility (high probability) that this indeed happened. Just the accused have not found the evidence to charge themselves. When an institution is constantly accused of racism and homophobia does an investigation on itself are we to take their word that it was thorough?
Maybe I’m more skeptical about internal investigations from institutions with lousy track records. My region has been filled with historical evidence which leads to coverups and intimidation.
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What is the saying (can’t find it, but I think it’s West Wing)? ~ ‘this can be in the News cycle for 2 days or 2 months’. The school is trying to put it to rest and be done. Anyway, people are generally ignoring 5 day old news (had it’s 2 days) like this:
Or our (.)(.)-gate in our student section (other thread) - probably another 2-day ‘scandal’
… sigh
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East Provo needs to own it’s real history, warts and all, and then ask the question, “What do we do now to change an age-old institutionalized wrong in a way that we stop it and never do it again?”
Come to think of it, this discussion ought to be a National discussion; but as “all politics are local,” it is going to happen at a local level. It is a conversation to be had with EVERYONE, not just the WASPS; and YES, it is going to be a very uncomfortable discussion for all. Yes, there are going to be some things brought up that will be ridiculous, and we have to choose civility over emotional reactions. Given all the built in biases that have been baked in over the centuries, change is going to be slow so using our better angels in the day to day has to be the working standard. It is our only hope for making these issues dissolve away into historical artifact and stop being a daily thing.
Ok, rant over.
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https://twitter.com/madihawes/status/1569383288967696384?s=21&t=n4hYr1zbOkKbQaw4Kpl42A
Read a bit down the thread:
The shirt allows people to communicate a hostile
message with some very small amount of plausible
deniability it’s actually just a nonsense comment
about history; that is, one of the goals of the shirt is
to get people to say “your shirt is homophobic”
SO the wearer can respond “no, my shirt is about figs.
You’re homophobic for immediately assuming it was
a slur against gay people for no reason. I didn’t even
realize the shirt could be read that way.” This is in
spite of the fact that they know very well it will be
read that way, because it’s gonna happen every time.
Beyond the Duke issue is the generic “gotcha” social commentary people like to engage in.
It’s like they feel a need to make up for all the leftwing / “woke” / liberal awakenings people have when they go to college, pretty much since colleges became a thing.
“Fig” - that’s pretty damn cool, dude. You really got 'em.
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smh, BYU students continue to demonstrate why I view them as children.
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This doesn’t belong in this category, but I didn’t want to create a new category for a single YBU related post…
This item, is wrong in SOOOO many ways, but let’s’ start with:
- upwards of 2000 calories
- the name, Cougar Tail, Really?
I wonder it you can order it à la mode? …good grief
This just in : Trump investigates himself and finds no wrong doings! A jiggling Trump said " Total exoneration"
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To be fair I am outraged every time my wife makes cookies and half the plate goes missing. I solemnly swear to find the culprit and report back.
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Here’s a contrary view from a guy named Jon Avlon at CNN:
I don’t know what happened but I still think an independent investigation would be helpful.
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Since we’re double posting CNN videos because some organization self investigated let’s also add students on campus who suffer under the BYU admin:
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