Demand For Racism Outstrips Supply, Increasing Supply Of Imaginary Racism

The demand for racism continues to outstrip the supply, increasing the supply of imaginary racism.Case in point: the reaction to the story of Rachel Richardson, a 19-year-old black female volleyball player for Duke. Last month, Richardson accused fans from the student section in the crowd of repeatedly calling her the N-word during a match with BYU.The story never made much sense. How could no one else in a crowd of 5,700 people have heard someone yell the most scrutinized word in the English language at a player on the court?  The answer: because it didn't happen.Earlier this month, an exhaustive investigation found no evidence supporting allegations that anyone yelled racial slurs at Richardson. BYU had to rescind a ban they placed on a fan after it was clear he did not utter any slurs. In fact, he is reportedly mentally challenged. The school apologized to him, but Richardson did not.The scandal proved to be Jussie Smollett in volleyball tights. Smollett, a Hollywood actor, staged a fake hate crime against himself to frame white Trump supporters in 2019. Like with Smollet, corporate journalists immediately mainstreamed Richardson's claim, minus an ounce of skepticism. They didn't dare ask questions or exercise curiosity, the most basic fundamentals of their trade.Instead, ABC News, CNN, ESPN, the Washington Post, and their cronies used Richardson's dubious accusation as proof that vile white racists haunt American society. Unfortunately, most outlets have not found the time to report the inconvenient results of the investigation. 

So, this certainly won't happen again, right? The credulous media will surely wait for the facts before next putting someone else on the prestigious victim pedestal, right?Wrong. Richardson's story was only the latest installment in an expanding real-life anthology series of racial hoaxes. There's too much riding on the narrative that racism plagues American society to ever not give ample time to any alleged example that could reaffirm this claim, no matter the evidence. There's too much excitement to denounce society as racist anew. Think about it. One side of the culture war has staked its reputation on the hypothesis that America is fundamentally racist. Wealthy liberals have ridden this proclamation to advantages in all facets of society, from politics to the classroom to corporate America. They say they, themselves, are the cure for racism. However, this momentum requires continuous examples over which cultural warriors can fume. Hence the willingness to amplify any self-reported case of white racism. Believe All Purported Victims of Racism ought to be the new trendy Twitter slogan. Consider the impact of racial division. Without it, Democrats could not demand a specific gender-race combination for a vice president and Supreme Court justice. The careers and profits of Joy Reid and corrupt civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump depend on racial division and hatred.The political group BLM could not have destroyed cities sans the branding of racial injustice.  Supposedly "anti-racist" but actually racist training programs work only in the guise of equity. Cancel culture could not exist without heightened, exaggerated racial tensions. Messaging is the Left's greatest cultural advantage. And there's no greater form of messaging than racial hysteria. Systemic racism is a narrative that progressives can ill-afford to allow wane. And therein lies the concern. The supply of macro racism cannot fulfill the ever-growing demand. American institutions do not discriminate against non-white citizens, despite what the New York Times prints. Dangerous white nationalism appears more frequently in Joe Biden's teleprompter than in reality. No wonder he'spressuring the FBI to fabricate "extremist" and "white supremacist" cases. Now, racism still exists at the individual level by virtue of bad actors, who are of all skin colors. That's unfortunate and impossible to prevent. Yet the prevailing narrative remains far more exaggerated, stating that white supremacy remains an institutional, day-to-day crisis. There's no evidence of that. It's a myth. A politically-motivated ruse. Such a conundrum has forced progressives, from DC to New York newsrooms, to search more aggressively for proof that society remains deeply rooted in racism. The Left had hoped the tales of Smollett and Richardson could better reestablish this preferred narrative. A devalued race card would put the woke movement at a distinct disadvantage. Avoiding such an inevitable outcome requires amplifying dubiously alleged hate crimes and manipulating the conversation. Most damningly, the press has deceitfully reported on racially motivated crimes to reaffirm the declaration that white nationalism is the greatest threat to the homeland. An extensive report from the Washington Free Beacon found that the leading American newspapers are more likely to mention a perp or killer's race if they are white than black at a seven-to-one ratio. The same press also selectively chooses which hate crimes to cover. During the same week of the Richardson scandal, a student was brutally beaten for his white skin tone. Predictably, the story did not make the major news channels. Warning: the clip is hard to stomach. The words equity, inclusion, anti-racist, and violent white supremacists have too much potential to let the facts squander. So, when Richardson alleged she was a victim of racism, there was no hesitancy to propagate her claim. Her story was in-demand. Twitter and the news networks found her story useful, a means to reestablish a talking point waning in credibility. Truths are inconvenient to the supposed "anti-racists." And here are some truths: A mentally challenged kid did not yell racial slurs at Rachel Richardson. No one did. White MAGA Trump supporters did not assault Jussie Smollett. He staged it himself. A racist did not put a noose in Bubba Wallace's garage. It was a garage door pull. Fans did not chant the N-word in Colorado in what became known as the "Dinger" incident. “Dinger” is the name of the mascot. These were fallacies that ultimately only reassured us that, while flawed, America is hardly a racist country. There's never been a greater country in which more citizens of more skin colors could prosper than this iteration of the United States. That'd be a universally acclaimed progression but for a political movement tethered to a contradictory message, a movement that fancies itself with fighting racism that does not exist.

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Bobby Burack is a writer for OutKick where he reports and analyzes the latest topics in media, culture, sports, and politics.. Burack has become a prominent voice in media and has been featured on several shows across OutKick and industry related podcasts and radio stations.