The controversy was also unfolding against the backdrop of nationwide protests against racism. Coincidence?
By Bruce C.T. Wright, NewsOne
The news that NASCAR‘s only African American driver in any of its top races found a noose in his team’s garage stall was even more disturbing considering that it was reported amid a series of hanging deaths of Black people across the country.
Bubba Wallace Jr. called the noose “a despicable act of racism and hatred” after he and his team made the discovery on Sunday. That came two weeks after Wallace called out NASCAR for its flying of the Confederate Flag as the nation protested against racism, successfully getting the stock car-racing league to remove the racist symbol. That move rubbed at least one of Wallace’s racist fellow racers the wrong way, prompting him to quit in the days leading up to someone reportedly leaving the noose in Wallace’s team garage before a race in Talladega, Alabama.
NASCAR made the announcement late Sunday night and said it was “angry and outraged, and cannot state strongly enough how seriously we take this heinous act.” Nowhere in NASCAR’s statement did it mention how something like this should have been expected considering how the racing company has at best celebrated and at worst encouraged anti-Black racism for decades by flying the Confederate Flag at its races.
