Really was hoping we didn’t have to say anything about this but here we go.
It turns out the “noose” found in the racetrack garage of NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace, NASCAR’s only black driver in the Cup Series (the highest level), was a rope hung there over a year ago and left in the garage.
When the story first broke, people commented on how it shows us just how far we have to go. I’m here to suggest that the story, even as it has unfolded, still does.
A lot of folks focused on the overt racist act of hanging a noose in a garage as a horrible hate crime, which it would have been.
Even before today’s news broke of the story being a different outcome, I noticed something else.
I saw many, way too many, people on social media. They were the ones saying they’re finished watching NASCAR because it’s “too political.” One lady literally said “he’s not even completely black” (he is biracial). They felt empowered to say things like this even using their own real names and profile photos.
They were the people claiming a hoax, questioning whether Bubba planted the noose himself. And many of them defended themselves as not racist, saying, “I think Bubba planted the noose. Show me how that statement is racist.”
It’s in the above kind of statements where I think it’s most obvious that we all still have a lot of work to do. It’s easy to point at a noose-displayer and say “Look, I’m not racist like that person.” Yet in the same breath, some of us allow our biases to more quickly focus on whether the noose was planted or not, rather than focusing on the humanity of the driver who may have been the victim of such hate.
At this point, maybe you’ve been waiting to pull the Jussie Smollett card. Stop it. I think it’s a sign of bias if you allow the actions of Jussie, one person of color who made foolish decisions, to discredit the experiences of millions of others wrestling with pain in the midst of ongoing racial reconciliation.
This musing would end here, if not for the news today that the “noose” was not a hate crime. It would also end here if not for the disturbing reaction of so, so, so many people.
There is celebrating and laughing and taunting and gloating. Jussie Part II, people proclaim. Bubba is a race baiter, people say. Fake Noose is trending.
What you can’t forget, though, is the fear and pain in Bubba’s reaction to the “noose” was real. He didn’t plant that rope. He didn’t ask for his team to see a rope, in the shape of a noose, and react accordingly. He didn’t ask NASCAR to issue a statement yesterday on the situation.
He did drive a car two weeks ago with a Black Lives Matter paint job. He did lead NASCAR to banning the confederate flag from their races. He did know, when he took the green flag yesterday, how he was serving as a voice for people of color in a sport with countless “fans” resentful of everything he’s doing.
When you carry that much burden, you don’t get a choice to wait it out and hope that a racist didn’t do that to you. Even worse, you know there are some blatant racists who would do such a thing. Even even worse, those blatant racists are backed by millions and millions of other people who are more likely to call “hoax” than offer empathy in a time of terror, frustration, and fear.
I’m disturbed that the turns-out-not-a-noose story, for some, makes the truth of systemic oppression a fake narrative to them. I don’t understand how you reach that conclusion unless your world is completely protected by those who have never lived this story. The post-race video is a real account of a person living this story. Fear is real, but fortunately for the best of our leaders, courage is too.