Die-hard Duke basketball fans, hundreds of whom camp out in a tent village to get seats for Saturday’s rivalry game against the University of North Carolina, have been the target of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts this year.
The student section of Blue Devils fans, dubbed the “Cameron Crazies” for the energy and antics they bring to this cramped arena at Duke, crush opponents with the help of “cheer sheets” that include biographical information and biting comments about opposing players. Earlier cheers from games against UNC called one of its athletes “the ugliest player in the NCAA” and said of another, “he’s not allowed to live within 200 yards of a school.”
The chants offered were sometimes pointed – “Caveman” for a player with long hair and a beard – but largely harmless, including “Go, Devils, Go” and “Baby!” Duke fans regularly scream and wave at opposing players when they come in on the ball.
At a DEI town hall hosted by Duke’s student government this year, sports fans were encouraged to be responsible for any fights between opposing players and refrain from insults, according to Duke’s student newspaper, The Chronicle.
The town hall, which included remarks from basketball players and members of the athletic staff, was for students participating in the tent village tradition called Krzyzewskiville, or K-Ville, after former men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski. About 100 people attended the event, according to the university.
David Ntim, a sophomore biomedical engineering student camping in Krzyzewskiville, didn’t go to the town hall but said he understood its intent.
“I can definitely see how it could justify just having these conversations about, ‘How do we advance where people are and understand the balance of agitation,'” Ntim said.
In a joint response to emailed questions, Duke and the student line watchers who oversee the tent village said the town hall was part of the student group’s “proactive emphasis on DEI in K-Ville to foster a greater sense of community in the traditions surrounding Duke Basketball.” Kyle Serba, a spokesman for the Duke men’s basketball program, said the event was not in response to a specific situation involving Duke students.
The university has been on both sides of accusations of crowd disorder.
In 2013, a North Carolina State basketball player said fans in Duke’s student section were taunting his dead grandmother. In 2022, a Duke volleyball player said fans watching a match at Brigham Young University had called her a racial slur. In both cases, the host school investigated and said it found no evidence to support the allegations.
DEI’s efforts on college campuses have been polarizing, with the University of Florida eliminating all related positions last week.
Danielle Boaz, an associate professor of Africana studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, said Duke’s town hall could be a sensitive issue because it could upset some donors or the purpose of the event could be misconstrued.
“Unfortunately, even saying, ‘Hey, we shouldn’t be racist’ can be seen as too liberal or too ‘woke,'” Boaz said.
Duke and linebackers said talking points at the town hall included using inclusive and respectful language, as well as an overview of the rules of conduct in Krzyzewskiville and at the games. They said the cheer sheets “are a classic part of our game day traditions” and “have always aligned with our goal of ‘crashing responsibly.’
In recent years, the student government has tried to make Krzyzewskiville more accessible by providing financial assistance in the form of camping supplies. The annual cost to attend Duke is about $83,000, according to the university’s website.
Krzyzewskiville, located near Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, NC, began in 1986 as Krzyzewski turned Duke into a basketball juggernaut. He won five national championships in 42 seasons at Duke, retiring in 2022.
Some Duke students sleep in tents for weeks before the annual home game against the North Carolina Tar Heels, who play about 10 miles away in Chapel Hill. It’s one of the fiercest rivalries in sports and a cultural moment embedded in the fabric of the state.
“You have to strike a fine balance because you don’t want DEI to be killjoys, but at the same time you want it to be a family experience that the whole community can enjoy,” said Dan Aldridge, professor of Africana Studies at Davidson College, near Charlotte.
He continued: “I think for Duke, there’s a context because their fans are so notoriously obnoxious.”
Insensitive behavior by professional fans has also caused concern. Native American groups have long protested the tomahawk gesture used at Kansas City Chiefs and Atlanta Braves games. A soccer match in Las Vegas ended early last year after supporters of Mexico’s national team erupted in anti-gay chants, and the year before, someone in the Paris crowd threw a banana at a Brazilian soccer player.
“Sports always becomes this place of tension and this place where we try to say, ‘Well, this should be outside of politics,’ but it never really is,” Boaz said.
