Duke basketball head coach Jon Scheyer's (alleged) little white lie may seem insignificant in the midst of these racialized times, but it's not. I don't know Scheyer, and as James Baldwin said, "I have nothing against you. I don't know you personally, but I know you historically."
Scheyer represents the danger of powerful white men making things up, better known as lying, to deflect and protect themselves. His pronouncement that one of his staff members had been "punched in the face" shifted the whole narrative away from UNC's Seth Trimble's buzzer beater shot. Again, in the grand scheme of things, this may not matter to some, but for those of us who study race and whiteness, this is a big deal. And it's connected to larger systemic issues of power intersecting with race and gender.
Imagine if Duke was playing an HBCU--how harmful would his accusation have been to Black people specifically & historically Black colleges in general?!?
Scheyer basically went Karen at the end of the game when he was under duress.
I'm not saying Scheyer is a bad person. I'm saying he and his people have a history of delving into narrative engineering and unfortunately, the consequences have led to actual violence against Black bodies. I saw District Attorney Jeff Nieman's thoughts regarding there being "zero evidence" that someone on Duke's staff was punched or trampled. And I was triggered.
Scheyer needs to publicly own what he did and apologize to all he impacted, if indeed he fabricated this story. #disruptivepeace #peacemaker #antiracisteducator
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