Something a little bit big happened yesterday and I want to make sure no one missed it.
NASCAR announced it was banning the image of the Confederate flag, not only in an official capacity which they had already done, but throughout its arenas nationwide.
I like NASCAR about as much as I like colonoscopies.
I have never understood society’s attraction to watching souped up combustion engines aimlessly and noisily circle a field. I’ve also never been a connoisseur of cars. The depth and breadth of what I don’t know about cars is astonishing.
My older brother, Mike, who I offended yesterday by comparing working as a high-end chef was anything like the ulcer-causing, hair-pulling conditions of being an air traffic controller because he had firsthand experience at orchestrating the flight paths and landings of dozens of planes simultaneously, tried his best to gin up my interest in automobiles while I was a teenager.
One evening he took me to a deserted, and not yet opened, University of Texas at Dallas campus to see if the family’s Ford Galaxie 500 could hit 100 miles per hour. The campus had an ideal straightaway and I had a sneaking suspicion he had used it before. To my amazement, the Galaxie 500 did not fall apart at a 100 miles per hour and we both lived to tell the tale.
Later on, in one of the stupidest stunts I ever pulled, I drove my younger sister from Flagstaff to the rim of the Grand Canyon in the same Galaxie 500 at speeds that always hovered around 100 mph in an effort to catch the sun before it dropped below the red cliffs. I have not approached 100 mph in a vehicle since. My memories from that reckless drive was that it felt like we were ‘floating’, and when we dropped down to 60, it felt like we were about to park.
But I am getting a long way from the good news that the Stars and Bars have been banned at NASCAR races. Apparently, the only black driver in NASCAR’s top series, Bubba Wallace, called for an end to its display. Between his indignance, and the country still recoiling from the serial murders of black citizens culminating in the horrific video of George Floyd’s death, even NASCAR could read the tea leaves.
Below is Bubba’s car.
Here is what Bubba Wallace had to say after NASCAR removed the Confederate flags - in an official capacity - following the massacre by a white supremacist of nine people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston:
My next step would be to get rid of all confederate flags. There should be no individual that is uncomfortable showing up to our events to have a good time with their family that feels some type of way about something they have seen, an object they have seen flying.
“No one should feel uncomfortable when they come to a NASCAR race. So it starts with confederate flags. Get them out of here. They have no place for them. The narrative on that before is I wasn’t bothered by it, but I don’t speak for everybody else. I speak for myself. What I am chasing is checkered flags, and that was kind of my narrative.
“But diving more into it and educating myself, people feel uncomfortable with that. People talk about that. That’s the first thing they bring up. So there’s going to be a lot of angry people that carry those flags proudly, but it’s time for change.”
Imagine your typical NASCAR aficionado, no, fan because that’s short for fanatic, watching a black car with a black driver and a hashtag BlackLivesMatter driving around and around and around an oval raceway all day. And now they can’t ferociously waves their rebel flags as a means of venting their anger.
I am sure there are going to be some heartbroken redn…..I mean, folks.
But, I’ll bet, NASCAR, by doing the right thing, will be better off in the long run.
It may be like the banning of smoking in public places. Those of us who abhorred the idea of returning home stinking like an ashtray after an evening at the local tavern and music venue thought we were a minority - or an insignificant majority - before the ban went into place only to discover we were very much the majority. Perhaps a more inclusive NASCAR will attract a broader range of aficionados.
I won’t be one of them but I pledge to look more favorably upon them than I would a doctor with a hose up my bum.
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Are you familiar with the Southern Poverty Law Center? If not, you should be. They’ve been the watchdogs for America’s hate groups for a very long time. Check out their imminently accessible website for a trove of information.
Also, on Juneteenth this year in Tulsa, Oklahoma the site of one of the largest race massacres to have taken place in the United States, the narcissist-in-chief will be holding a look-at-me-aren’t-I-great rally. But…..
