Well shit…
This whole Bubba Wallace noose incident has been quite the firestorm in both the NASCAR community and the entire world over the past few days, and for good reason…. if it was a direct hate crime towards Bubba Wallace, or any member of the black community, than it deserves to be vehemency be condemned and stood against in every single way. And even if it wasn’t, which 15 FBI investigators have determined that it wasn’t a direct hate crime since it had been there since the fall, we still have to wonder why there was a noose like garage pull on a door at Talladega.
And now today, NASCAR has released the photo of what Bubba Wallace’s team found and well… it’s pretty disturbing.
In a press release, NASCAR President Steve Phelps released the following:
“Upon learning of and seeing the noose, our initial reaction was to protect our driver… We’re living in a highly charged and emotional time. What we saw was a symbol of hate and was only present in one area of the garage and that was of the 43 car of Bubba Wallace. In hindsight, I should have used the word ‘alleged’ in our statement. As you can see from the photo, the noose was real, as was our concern for Bubba. With similar emotion, others across our industry and our media stood up to defend the NASCAR family. Our NASCAR family. Because they are part of the NASCAR family, too. We are proud to see so many stand up for what’s right.”
Did they jump the gun? Maybe, but can we understand why? Definitely.
When Bubba spoke to the media, he also insisted that what he saw was a noose whether or not it was directed at him personally. And from the evidence, that appears to be the case.
