They say that over here we are ore tolerant.
That racism is more overtly prevalent in the US
That we Europeans are finally starting to get to get the message...
This picture tells me otherwise.
Lewis Hamilton, The reason young black people now regularly watch Formula 1, suffered ridiculous racist taunts & chants while he was testing his car in Barcelona. Lewis himself says that he expected some kind of backlash after his feud with former teammate Fernando Alonso (who is spanish). But the level of abuse was upsetting. I hope he didn't mean that he expected some kind of racist abuse. He says that he was simply protected his position in trying to win a championship & that his reputation in Spain has been severly damaged. Why the hell is he sounding so apologetic towards these people. I can understand him not wanting to fan the flames but there comes a point where you have to just say This Is Wrong.
But the bigger question is, if these idiots walked in to the circuit looking like they do in the picture, why weren't they stopped before entering. If they did in fact get themselves ready once they entered the circuit, why didn't someone stop them then. If nobody realised what these idiots were doing until they started the chanting, why were they allowed to do it when hamilton walked out to start testing & when he went back to his team base after he had finished some minutes later. The security personnel let them get on with it & the people around them did the same. That means that they must condone what was going on, which makes them racist too. Then Formula 1 chiefs come out with a statement saying that if it happens again Spain will lose it's Grand Prix. Again, what the hell do you mean if it happens again. There comes a point where you simply cant tolerate this kind of behaviour. I suppose the money & logistics involved in moving a Grand Prix so close to the start of the new season is just too much for these guys. Yet i suspect that if there were 5 or 6 black drivers in Formula 1 & they all made the right noises something more substantial than cheap talk may have come to pass.
My mother was going to start a business with her partner in Spain. She is black & her partner is white. They are no longer going to do that because of the abuse we suffered over there. We had cab drivers taking our money then calling us dogs as we got out of the cab. People pointed at us like we were weirdo's. There were some really gracious people out there but some are the most outwardly racist people i have ever come across. I thought that some of the things i have experienced went out with the black & white TV.
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