Bubba Wallace, the only Black full-time NASCAR driver, predicted on Friday that if fans decided to protest over the circuit’s ban on the Confederate flag, officers likely won’t hit them with tear gas or rubber bullets like Black Lives Matter protesters.
“It’s their rights for peaceful protest, my man. It’s a part of it,” Wallace said. “But you won’t see them inside the racetracks where we’re having a good time with the new fans that are purchasing their tickets, purchasing their favorite drivers’ apparel. You won’t see it flying in there.
“It’s exactly what you see on the flip side of everything going on and in cities as they peacefully protest,” he continued. “But you won’t see cops pepper-spraying them and shooting them with rubber bullets, will you?”
Wallace’s last line is is a reference to the many countless videos of cops that have displayed questionable actions towards Americans during the largely peaceful protests after George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis. The most infamous example is the violent way that peaceful protesters were cleared out of Lafayette Square near the White House to make way for President Donald Trump to take a picture with a Bible in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church.
That was such a huge difference in what we saw earlier this year when armed protesters voiced their disagreement with stay-at-home orders that were put in place to stop the spread of coronavirus.
