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Comment by cm2187 | Hacker News Reader

One more illustration that the demand for racism exceeds the supply.

I think you're misreading this.

In my view, it is the demand for viral anger inducing content that is unlimited. That, of course, can include content that relates to racism, but the power of social media doesn't depend on the specific category of anger; rather, it thrives on virtually all anger. There are many examples of viral hoaxes that are not specifically about race, though topics related to race certainly do play well into the anger spiral of most social media.

I would say that such hoaxes, in general, only work to add confusion to our perceptions of the real harms of racism in our society. Do not attempt to find any clarity based on these hoaxes. We shouldn't draw conclusions about how much racism there is, based on internet viral fud. To do so is to allow the deception to misdirect us away from the reality of the situation. Whatever that reality is, it's not reflected by this type of thing. Rather, this type of situation reflects the more general anger spiral that social media thrives on.

These "hate hoaxes" are quite common. A few of the more prominent examples from recent years include Jussie Smollett, the Rolling Stone rape story, Yasmin Seweid, and Covington Catholic. Come to think of it, it seems like most of the major stories about some racist or sexist incident turn out to be false.

It's not surprising that people do this, given how much value modern society places on "victimhood" and being a member of some oppressed group. What's more worrying is the tendency of the media and society to accept these accusations uncritically and jump on the bandwagon to condemn the alleged wrongdoer.

The BYU Volleyball incident is the most recent.

The BYU Volleyball incident happened.

Conveniently for itself, BYU decided that the chants were not racist. Specifically, their entire justification for this finding that the fan in question did not say anything while the targeted athlete was serving the ball. But enough white Duke coaches and athletes also heard the racist remarks during the game that the university was able to identify the fan so that they could ask BYU to ban the fan.

But apparently the anti-BYU chants this past weekend were super offensive. Hypocrites.

The footage is out there, you can review it yourself, no racial epithets were yelled. The mens basketball team was there, with a good number of black people; not a single heard anything. The entire crowd would need to be complicit, along with the refs and the coach.

It seems very clearly, at best, the person misheard, although more likely made up.

Interesting that the Root and other publications by people of color hear slurs when watching the video but Caucasians do not.

It suggests that BYU, and whites in generally, may not even be aware of their casual use of terms considered offensive to minorities.

Was this reported on The Root? I searched their site but didn't find what you describe.

They did report on the BYU investigation and seemed to disagree. [1] But they don't mention having reviewed the footage. Nor do they provide any other evidence.

1: https://www.theroot.com/byu-finds-no-evidence-of-racist-heck...

> their entire justification for this finding that the fan in question did not say anything while the targeted athlete was serving the ball.

Wasn't the claim that someone yelled the n-word every time the girl served the ball?

Didn't BYU interview 50 students and fans, and not find a single one who could corroborate? And they pored over all of the recorded footage of the televised game and found nothing?

Seems unlikely that NPR would be carrying water for BYU if Duke had the goods. [1]

1: https://www.npr.org/2022/09/14/1122977386/byu-apologizes-to-...

No, that's what BYU claimed.

The athlete, and her teammates, and her coaches, said that the fan was making racist comments the entire game.

NPR merely reported BYU's findings. Apparently it's not politically correct to call out Mormons on their homophobia or racism, so the Duke team's experience was left out of the NPR coverage.

NPR does not credulously report on such matters. Duke's claims were thoroughly covered in the original NPR story. So obviously NPR does report on racist behavior at BYU, when it appears to be true.

Have Duke's claims been put into a report anywhere? It sounds like you accept claims of racism over a report based on actual evidence and dozens of interviews. Even when that report is widely reported in media that has egg on its face for having jumped the gun.

Can you point to Duke's evidence, or share what more could be shown by BYU/NPR/NBC to change your mind?

I know this thread is long-dead, but putting this out there as additional proof that the BYU incident happened:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/stand-up-n-words-more-athl...?

TLDR: the recent volleyball incident was just one of many recent BYU racism incidents.

A thing to consider is that the hoaxers would likely over-report while real victims would tend to under-report.

Don't forget this gem, which was roundly blamed on MAGA voters:

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli-American teenager was found guilty in Israel on Thursday of making about 2,000 hoax bomb threats against Jewish and other institutions in the United States and elsewhere during Donald Trump’s rise to the U.S. presidency in 2016 and 2017.

https://www.npr.org/2018/06/28/624338353/israel-court-convic...

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-usa-hacker-idUSKBN...

Its just a series of outrageous political operations.

Only if you define racism in a singular direction. There's plenty of racism to go around, just not the kind that's fashionable to point out.

Exactly. When these sorts of acts are committed by non-whites, they disappear quickly from the news cycle and the race of the perpetrator is not mentioned or not emphasized. Anyone even remember the name of the black man with a history of racist posts that killed 6 and injured 62 during the Waukesha Christmas parade last year? Didn't think so

Anybody remember if that black man was a participant in a community of racists? Didn't think so. There's a difference in policy between handling a lone nutcase and racist groups.

I’m reminded of the comparison to the dragon-slaying knight, finding himself with fewer and fewer dragons to slay, resorts to slaying increasingly small animals and, once nobody is impressed by that anymore, builds dragon effigies of straw.

Or the movie Dragonheart, where a dragon and knight team up to fake dragonslayings to con villagers.

This wouldn't be a problem if journalists sought facts instead of narratives.

There are a few racists and I guess the positive side is that people can also learn from negative examples. The daily stormer was banned. I think it perfectly depicted racists at their lowest point and I doubt they could have impressed many people.

Getting rid of all racism is as futile as getting rid of all stupidity. I think them being in the public so people can actually watch what they are doing and discussing is pretty reassuring. Because it often is very clear that it doesn't amount to much.

Eh, racism at the structural level doesn't move as fast as the number of Karen's in the world.

This is social media wagging the dog.

Your conclusions are erroneous.

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