Good morning, Winners! Thanks so much for rocking with the Morning Win today. We appreciate you giving us a bit of your time.
The more information we get about Utah’s women’s basketball team’s awful weekend, the more I feel this should’ve been avoided.
To make a long story short, for part of the weekend, the Utes had to stay in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, instead of Spokane, Washington, where their games were being played because of a lack of space.
While staying in Idaho, the team experienced the worst parts of humanity. They were the targets of some racist attacks from people in Coeur d’Alene. As they were coming to and from dinner at their team hotel, they were harassed. They had people revving trucks at them and calling them the N-word. The attacks were so bad the team had to switch hotels.
Utah head coach Lynne Roberts on the racial remarks made toward her team in Coeur d’Alene: “For our players and staff to not feel safe in an NCAA Tournament environment, it’s messed up.” pic.twitter.com/dBqJtjhkwh
“For our players and staff not to feel safe in an NCAA tournament environment, it’s messed up,” Roberts said. And she’s right — it is messed up.
This is supposed to be one of the best moments of her players’ lives. Instead, it became a moment of anguish for her team, staff and traveling party. That should never have been allowed to happen.
Look, I don’t want to blame the NCAA for people’s racism. It’s not the organization’s fault that these hateful people targeted Utah.
But, at the same time, sending this team to Coeur d’Alene was a clear mistake.
A quick Google search tells you all of that. Do you mean to tell me that no one could’ve done that for Utah’s basketball team before they were moved into the town? It doesn’t take that much.
Truthfully, it’s a shame that the team even had to move in the first place.
I get it. There wasn’t enough space to house Utah in Spokane for the weekend with the men’s and women’s tournaments in the same area. The NCAA picked Spokane as one of the men’s tournament sites four years ago, according to The Athletic. The women’s tournament’s first few rounds use the home arenas of the first four ranked teams in each region as the tournament sites. It’s a tricky confluence of events, to be sure.
But shouldn’t the teams playing in the area get a bit of priority here? Why should they travel 30 minutes away just to come back and play a game the next day? That’s absurd.
The NCAA has come a long way with the treatment of the women’s tournament. It’s always been an afterthought — March Madness branding wasn’t even used for it. To be fair to the NCAA, that’s changed in recent years. This incident makes it clear the organization still has a long way to go.
Utah’s safety wasn’t a concern. The NCAA just treated it as a logistical piece. These women were placed in a space that was clearly unsafe, and the NCAA didn’t seem to care until the damage was already done. Now, here we are.
The NCAA released a statement condemning racism on Tuesday, per CNN. “The NCAA condemns racism and hatred in any form and is committed to providing a world-class athletics and academic experience for student-athletes that fosters lifelong well-being,” the organization said.
That’s nice. But you know what would be even nicer? If Utah was never put in this position in the first place.
Hopefully, the NCAA will be more proactive in situations like this moving forward.
Coach Cal is back in blue
Mandatory Credit: Jordan Prather-USA TODAY Sports
The thing we all knew was going to happen actually happened. Despite Kentucky’s upset loss to Oakland in the first round of the NCAA tournament, John Calipari will return as the head coach next season.
As we normally do at the end of every season, Coach Calipari and I have had conversations about the direction of our men’s basketball program and I can confirm that he will return for his 16th season as our head coach.
“As we normally do at the end of every season, Coach Calipari and I have had conversations about the direction of our men’s basketball program and I can confirm that he will return for his 16th season as our head coach.”
Oh, boy. To be a fly on the wall during those conversations. I can only imagine what was said before the decision to bring Calipari back.
NBA basketball tends to go a bit under the radar in March with college hoops taking up all of our attention. But if you weren’t watching last night, you missed a treat from the Bucks and Lakers on Tuesday.
Milwaukee had a 19-point lead in the fourth quarter. The Lakers came all the way back to tie the game up and send it to overtime. Not behind some insane LeBron James barrage of 3-pointers. Not because of some incredibly dominant game from Anthony Davis (though he was great!).
Nope. Instead, it was Austin Reaves getting buckets. 29 points, 14 rebounds, 10 assists and one turnover. Plus a dominant fourth quarter.
Austin Reaves hit the game-winning three and scored 16 of his 29 points in the 4th quarter and OTs
I’ll tell you what, man. If these are the Lakers that show up for the playoffs this year? That first-round series could be pretty fun … as long as they make it out of the Play-In Tournament.
Donald Sterling was anything but during his tenure as the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, and Hall of Fame Boston Celtics small forward Dominique Wilkins had the misfortune to witness it firsthand after being traded there the season before he would join the Celtics in free agency.
Donald Sterling was anything but conventional during his tenure as the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, and Hall of Fame Boston Celtics small forward Dominique Wilkins had the misfortune to witness it firsthand after being traded there the season before he joined the Celtics in free agency.
Wilkins, a basketball legend, discussed his trade to the Clippers in 1994 while he was with the Atlanta Hawks with DJ Vlad on a recent episode of the “Vlad TV” podcast.
The trade was triggered by financial concerns. Wilkins was a free agent that year, and the Hawks did not fulfill their promises. This move was highly unusual, as the Hawks were leading the Eastern Conference at the time. Wilkins reflects on the unprecedented nature of this trade in NBA history.
To hear the tale from the man himself, take a look at the clip embedded below.
At just 18 years old, Wilkins was confronted with this terrifying symbol of hate.
While most players living in North Carolina would gravitate toward North Carolina, NC State or Duke for college basketball, Dominique Wilkins chose a different path by playing for Georgia. This decision, however, was met with significant backlash and consequences that shaped his perspective.
In the aftermath of his decision, Wilkins faced a series of distressing incidents that highlighted the racial tensions of the era. The most harrowing was the appearance of a burning cross in his front yard. At just 18 years old, Wilkins was confronted with this terrifying symbol of hate.
To hear how his initial confusion and fear gradually gave way to anger and determination, check out the clip embedded below of a recent interview the Human Highlight Reel did with the folks behind the “Vlad TV” YouTube channel.
Two particularly racist incidents stuck out to him: a cross burning and an unjust accusation of theft.
Boston Celtics alum Dominique Wilkins recently spoke about the racism he experienced in North Carolina that led him to leave and avoid returning for 30 years in an interview with the “Vlad TV” podcast. Two particularly racist incidents stuck out to him: a cross burning and an unjust accusation of theft.
Wilkins shared a story about being falsely accused of stealing a tape outside a department store. Despite having a significant amount of money on him, he was targeted due to his decision to leave North Carolina to play collegiately at Georgia. Luckily, his cousin, a police officer, intervened and decided to take Wilkins and his family out of town to Atlanta that night, sparing them potential harm. This marked the beginning of his 30-year absence from North Carolina, only returning when his statue was unveiled.
To hear his account of what caused him to stay away from a place he called home for many years for the better part of his adult life, take a look at the clip embedded below.
Denny Hamlin should have known better before tweeting a racist joke.
Denny Hamlin should have known better.
One of NASCAR’s highest profile drivers — a 41-year-old three-time Daytona 500 winner and 23XI Racing team co-owner — should have known not to tweet a racist, anti-Asian meme.
Even if it was his attempt to poke fun at his friend and competitor, Kyle Larson, who ignited a wreck Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway that collected the two 23XI cars, a racist joke emphasizing harmful anti-Asian-American stereotypes is unacceptable.
On the last lap of the GEICO 500, Larson was running near the front and moved multiple lanes up the track to try to steal the lead and victory. In the process, he made contact with Kurt Busch’s car, and as Busch bounced off the outside wall and came back into traffic, he hit Bubba Wallace, ruining both 23XI cars’ chances of a strong finish. That’s racing; it happens.
Monday, Hamlin tried to poke fun at Larson, seemingly without thinking about the destructive effects of racist jokes that uphold dehumanizing stereotypes. He tweeted a meme: A clip from Family Guy, a show no stranger to racist and misogynistic jokes, upholding an ugly stereotype about Asian-American women not being able to drive well. To make matters worse, the clip features a character — Hamlin’s meme superimposed Larson’s name over her — with heavily stereotyped accent.
Hamlin could have used any meme, any joke to tease Larson — who is half Japanese and the only Asian-American full-time driver in the NASCAR Cup Series — about his last-lap incident. The internet is abundant with meme choices that don’t target already marginalized groups of people, and he could have chosen any one of those to tease his buddy.
Had he tweeted a meme that wasn’t inherently racist and simply made an innocuous joke about Larson, it probably would have been fine. But he employed an already malevolent and demeaning punchline to make his point, and that’s the problem.
Later that night, Hamlin deleted the tweet and apologized — though he should have further explained why it’s offensive.
I took down a post I made earlier today after reading some of the comments. It was a poor choice of memes and I saw how it was offensive. It came across totally wrong. I apologize.
But some in the NASCAR world, like FOX Sports’ Mike Joy, and fans still missed why this was so horribly offensive and that there were, in fact, racial implications.
A screenshot of a now-deleted tweet from Mike Joy.
Toyota, the manufacturer for both 23XI Racing and Joe Gibbs Racing, the team for which Hamlin competes, agreed with NASCAR’s response.
Toyota response: "We have spoken with Denny Hamlin regarding his tweet from yesterday. Toyota supports NASCAR’s decision to mandate sensitivity training for Denny and we will all move forward to together."
It doesn’t matter if Larson — who NASCAR suspended and his former team fired in 2020 after the driver used the N-word — wasn’t offended by the joke. It doesn’t matter if you, the reader, are not offended by the joke. A racist joke is still racist. So again, Hamlin should have known better and at least reflected on why he found the joke funny and if it had the potential to cause harm to others.
Often rooted in bigotry or xenophobia, stereotypes are dehumanizing, and reinforcing them can have real-world negative impacts, including violence, especially when the target is a group of people already marginalized or discriminated against.
Hate crime directed toward Asian American and Pacific Islander communities is on the rise and has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. As the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism noted earlier this year, anti-Asian hate crime increased by 339 percent in 2021 compared with 2020, NBC News reported.
“In the incidents documented by Stop AAPI Hate, women were targeted more than two thirds of the time, pointing to more complex gendered stereotypes that also contribute to the current violence, said [Dr. Derald Wing Sue, a professor of psychology and education at Columbia University’s Teachers College], including the shooting deaths of six Asian American women in Atlanta.”
Last year, eight people, including six women of Asian descent, were killed in a shooting rampage at Atlanta-area spas. It happened five days before NASCAR’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and the track and sport honored the victims.
Before today’s race at @AMSupdates, we pause to remember the eight lives lost in shootings last week in the Atlanta area.
“It definitely hits closer to me probably,” Larson said after winning that 2021 Atlanta race. “Hopefully things will get better in our world. It’s just a terrible, terrible time for Asians. I hope it gets better.”
Barely a year later, one of NASCAR’s biggest stars tweeted a racist joke to his sizable platform at the expense of AAPI communities, particularly women.
NASCAR’s sensitivity training is a slap on the wrist for Hamlin and others who have had to take it before as the result of their actions, including Kyle Busch after using an ableist and derogatory slur in 2021 and Larson after using the N-word in 2020. Whether that training had or will have a meaningful impact on those who have taken it will only be determined by their future behavior and actions.
Hopefully, empathy, compassion and humanity will be reinforced in addition to an education about how racism and bigotry impact people regularly and how to combat it. Hopefully, it will encourage Hamlin and others to ask themselves before saying something: Could this negatively impact an already discriminated against group of people, whether it’s about race, disability, gender or sexual orientation?
Hamlin might not have asked himself that before tweeting the racist meme Monday. But he should have.
This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning. Chris Korman is filling in for Andy Nesbitt.
Colin Kaepernick gave a rare interview recently, sitting down to talk on the “I Am Athlete” show hosted by Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson, Adam “Pacman” Jones and Brandon Marshall.
It did not lack for substance. Marshall convincingly played the part of an NFL general manager sitting down to hear a pitch from Kaepernick for why his team should give the QB, exiled years ago for daring to speak out about racism and inequality, another shot. Kaepernick’s answers to that line of questioning are worth a read.
The bit of “news” that resonated most, though, tells you pretty much all you need to know about this particular chapter in NFL history. Kaepernick admitted something that a lot of people wanted him to admit for a long time, because in their heads, so full of machinations meant to make all of this something other than racist kickback to somebody pointing out racism, this was a real thing that mattered:
“I know I have to find my way back in. So, if I have to come in as a backup, that’s fine. But that’s not where I’m staying, and when I prove that I’m a starter, I want to step onto the field as such.”
“Let me come in and compete. Let me come in, compete, show you what I can do.”
The idea that Kaepernick needed to say this out loud has persisted because it’s been easy for bad-faith actors all along to say that he wouldn’t accept a diminished role, that he had certain demands related to returning and that he would become a problem if he didn’t get his way.
That’s so contorted it’s hard to even deal with. Kaepernick is the only person this standard is being applied to, and that’s how you know.
We’re right in the thick of DRAFT SZN. You reckon any prospects were badgered about their ability to acquiesce to a limited role? “Yes, sir, I only want to see the field 12 times a game, playing gunner on the punt team is my highest aspiration!” You think Andy Dalton has to promise to not make better throws than the young QBs he’s been paired with in recent years?
That’s simply not how the NFL works. It isn’t anything close to a meritocracy, as so many claim, but it’s definitely full of Type A competitors looking to push other Type A competitors. There are guys who got relegated to long-term backup spots at some point, and who fulfill those duties gracefully. But none of them relish that. None of them sit around saying: You know what, I *am* indeed only the 47th best QB in this league, and so it is.
They ALL think they have more they can show, if given the chance. That’s the culture every coach wants in the locker room, too. If a prospect did say they would be entirely content with a backup role and never push for more, it would be seen as a character flaw.
Yet somehow a perceived inability to do this very thing that would be looked down upon is what has kept Kaepernick out of the league?
Kaepernick knows this is all cow poop. He knows he’ll never get a shot again. Or, on the off chance that he does, it will come in a situation where he’s given little to no opportunity to actually succeed. The league’s owners decided he crossed a line by taking a knee, infuriating a certain set of sponsors and fans that they for whatever reason value more than others, and they’re never going to let it go.
Quick hits: Get to know Roki Sasaki… Freddie Freeman goes yard against the Braves… Gambling is making fans more angry… And more!
The NFL just confirmed what we knew all along. Brian Flores is right.
It was only a few days ago that the NFL tried to tell us that Brian Flores’ lawsuit against the league was “without merit.” Fast forward to today? It’s changed its tune quite a bit.
It turned out those texts were actually meant for Brian Daboll, the Bills’ former offensive coordinator. Flores alleged his interview was essentially a sham, and he was simply being used to check the box for the Rooney Rule, which requires NFL teams to interview, at least, two minority coaches for a head coaching spot.
The suit was filed on February 1. Almost immediately after it went public, the NFL rebutted it through a statement saying Flores’ claims were, again, “without merit” — along with a statement filled with buzz words organizations use when talking about diversity and inclusion.
On Saturday, though, the league changed its tune. Commissioner Roger Goodell sent a memo to the NFL’s clubs saying the league was retaining “outside experts” to evaluate the NFL’s DEI policies and the integrity of the game in light of Flores’ allegations.
The memo said these things would be “thoroughly and independently” reviewed.
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell just sent this memo to clubs, saying the league is retaining outside experts to help reevaluate its DEI policies and matters regarding integrity of the game will be “reviewed thoroughly and independently” in light of allegations from Brian Flores. pic.twitter.com/VUK2dm0MMe
“We have made significant efforts to promote diversity and adopted numerous polices and programs which have produced positive change in many areas, however we must acknowledge that particularly with respect to head coaches the results have been unacceptable. …
“We understand the concerns expressed by Coach Flores and others this week. While the legal process moves forward, we will not wait to reasses and modify our strategies to ensure that they are consistent with our values and longstanding commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.”
That doesn’t sound like Flores’ claims were made without merit at all. If anything, this statement validates those claims and confirms there’s clearly something that isn’t working in the NFL’s hiring process.
The thing about this is it was never hard to see the NFL had an issue in hiring coaches of color in the first place. We didn’t even need Flores to tell us this. Just doing some simple math would do the trick.
Since the Rooney Rule was adopted in 2003, there have been 127 head coaching jobs to open up, per NBC News. Only 27 of those head coaching jobs have gone to minorities. In a league where nearly 70 percent of the players are Black, that’s a problem.
We had those numbers before we even began to talk about Flores’ receipts. He was fired as a head coach in Miami after a winning season. He received texts from Bill Belichick confirming that he was interviewing for a job that was already gone. Those things are facts. We can point directly to them and see the problem there.
This just goes to show how ridiculous it was for the NFL to immediately come out and aggressively bat away Flores’ claims. There had been no investigation, no discussion. Not a single look.
But, yet, somehow the league felt comfortable in immediately saying the claims were without merit. The accused parties were immediately defended without thought. Just that fact alone is indicative of a larger problem the NFL seems to have in holding its leaders accountable.
It’s also the same problem currently leading to Washington Commander owner Dan Snyder having any sort of control over the release of an internal investigation the NFL conducted into the organization’s toxic workplace culture.
Nobody is bigger than the shield. Unless, of course, you own the shield. Then you’re never wrong.
Now a NASCAR champion, Kyle Larson needs to use his growing platform to continue fighting racism and inequality.
AVONDALE, Ariz. — Kyle Larson’s 2021 NASCAR Cup Series championship isn’t a redemption story. It’s not a comeback. And his monumental success on the track this year shouldn’t be confused for amends made after he missed most of the 2020 season.
Larson was absent from NASCAR for the majority of last year because he said the N-word during a live-streamed iRacing event that April. His sponsors quickly bailed, NASCAR suspended him and Chip Ganassi Racing fired him. So yes, he returned to NASCAR this year behind the wheel of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, but his dominating 10-win championship season should not be portrayed as a typical sports story where an athlete triumphs over adversity.
“I haven’t once felt like this year has been a redemption tour or anything like that,” Larson said last week. “I’ve had lots of people ask if I felt that way, and I don’t.”
He wasn’t an underdog, he wasn’t sidelined with an injury and he wasn’t racing for a team on the brink of closure. He used a racist slur — a disgusting and derogatory word that perpetuates anti-Black sentiments and shouldn’t have been anywhere near the tip of his tongue.
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Facing the consequences of his words, Larson’s wounds were self-inflicted, his punishments deserved and his atonement remains a work-in-progress. Nothing he does behind the wheel can accelerate that, and his performance shouldn’t be viewed as compensation for the harm and pain he caused last year.
“We always like giving second chances to really bad actors,” said Dr. Louis Moore, a sports historian and professor at Grand Valley State in Michigan.
“We always give them these opportunities to move on. And that’s fine, that’s NASCAR’s business. But it doesn’t mean we have to forget what happened. … And maybe that’s the punishment, that people’s memory, he gets judged by that.”
( Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports)
As a generational talent, Larson was almost certainly going to get a second chance in NASCAR. And even after he signed with Hendrick Motorsports, no one could have predicted this level of consistent dominance throughout the season, culminating in his first Cup title — also a first for an Asian American driver and alumnus of NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program.
Success for him was expected, though. So the latest test for the 29-year-old driver and newly crowned champ is what he does next as he crosses the threshold to a new level of stardom.
“He’s definitely been the most dominant driver this year, so what does that success look like?” said Mike Metcalf Jr., a Chip Ganassi Racing pit crew coach who is Black, was on Larson’s former pit crew and is still the No. 42 team’s fueler. “How are you using your influence and resources to empower the communities?”
If Larson continues on this professional track, he’s going to be a NASCAR star for years, maybe decades, to come. Now that he’s a champion, his job security seems more stable than ever — he’s signed through 2023 and team owner Rick Hendrick said Sunday he hopes Larson retires with him – and perhaps more sponsors are likely to team up with him. His fan base is growing, and multiple drivers said he had the largest impact on NASCAR this season. So will he use his growing platform to fight inequality and be actively anti-racist?
“Regardless of your stance on politics or race or whatever, I think everybody can agree that none of this stuff moves quickly,” Metcalf continued last month. “[I’m] more interested in the long run. It would be real easy for him to write a donation check to somewhere and go do some appearances. But I think the real measure is how you do it five, 10 years from now.”
So Larson worked to educate himself and help push back against inequalities to create change. He volunteered with and fundraised for organizations that provide educational opportunities for children of color and underserved communities, including the Urban Youth Racing School in Philadelphia and retired soccer star Tony Sanneh’s foundation in Minneapolis.
“At the Urban Youth Racing School, pretty much all their children they have there are Black, and so that’s why it was important to me to work very closely with them because I’d already had a relationship with them in the past and really wanted to grow on that this year,” said Larson, who’s worked with the school since 2017, according to founder Anthony Martin.
“They’re able to pick up the phone and call me whenever they want to ask me questions. I’ve donated a couple iRacing simulators to their school, and usually it’s them calling me and asking how to get around a certain track and stuff. It’s been it’s been great working with them.”
Kyle Larson and Urban Youth Racing School founder Anthony Martin at Pocono Raceway in June 2021. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
Larson said this fall, he visited the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. He said he spent “a few hours” in the mammoth museum, gaining a “better perspective on life” and “learning more about experiences that African Americans had to overcome to even get to where they’re at today.”
Earlier this year, he also launched the Kyle Larson Foundation — which aims to help communities in need through “hands-on support” — and through it, the “Drive for 5” initiative with a goal of raising $500,000. For the fundraising effort, he pledged personal donations of $5 for every lap completed and $5,000 for every top-5 finish, which amounts to $145,000 for the 2021 season. Larson said last week it’s raised more than $200,000 with help from other contributions.
The money, per Hendrick Motorsports, will go toward at least five student scholarships through the Urban Youth Racing School, provide daily meals to at least five families in need through The Sanneh Foundation and help at least five communities through school grants. And Larson said he hopes those types of contributions can become an annual tradition.
Martin, his wife, Michelle, and several others from the Urban Youth Racing School were at Sunday’s championship race, watching the finish near the No. 5 team’s pit box and celebrating on pit road. He hopes the school can expand with franchises in other cites to help “increase the participation of African Americans” and “have a major, major impact” on racing.
Larson’s fundraising efforts are a good next step that could have real-world impacts. But much of his efforts in the last year and a half seem to be about proving he’s not racist when taking steps to be actively anti-racist could help accomplish both.
“Actions speak louder than any word could ever speak,” said Martin last month. “You can talk all day about what you plan on doing in the community, or you can have goals and ideas of what you want to do in the community. But if you’re not doing those things in the community, it means absolutely nothing. And what Kyle has been doing — he’s actually been putting in the work.”
“You cannot let up what you’re doing,” Martin continued. “You have to continue to do great things and do things within the community and helping folks.”
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It’s OK to think that Larson deserved a second chance in NASCAR. It’s OK to believe his remorse is genuine and his efforts to grow and create positive change are authentic. Martin, sitting on the pit wall after the race, said he believes Larson has sought real change and continues to be willing to put in the work. Michelle Martin agreed, adding: “Off track is where he has had his biggest wins.”
So it’s OK to root for him and to celebrate his massively successful season. But his accountability hasn’t ended with his return to the sport and a championship.
We see it happen in sports all the time: An athlete’s controversy away from competition is erased or rewritten with their return to the field, court or race track. And with Larson winning his first championship and having a massively successful NASCAR season, his professional successes shouldn’t mitigate his personal failures or his responsibility to employ his growing platform to help dismantle inequalities.
So it’s OK to be happy for Larson and celebrate his success while also holding him to a high standard of accountability and expecting more from him to come. Those things aren’t mutually exclusive.
Examining how NASCAR has grown in the 18 months since Kyle Larson used a racist slur and where the sport can improve.
Mike Metcalf, one of the few Black men working on a NASCAR pit crew, knew what would come next. He saw how this would unfurl after Kyle Larson, then a driver on his Chip Ganassi Racing team, uttered the N-word during a live-streamed iRacing event in April 2020.
First, though, he felt the pain.
“It was a punch to the stomach, man,” Metcalf said. “Just lost your breath for a second.”
Larson lost his ride with Ganassi, NASCAR suspended him and his team’s championship hopes vanished — as Metcalf expected. NASCAR, a historically white, Southern sport, was suddenly forced to reckon with a culture that has often excluded drivers and fans of color.
“People on ESPN and Twitter and all that were like, ‘Oh, yeah, well, of course, I’m sure that’s how all those people talk,’ kind of referring to NASCAR,” Metcalf said.
“So when this Kyle thing happened, it kind of woke NASCAR up a little bit to say, ‘OK, we need to do more.’ … And so [it’s] trying to make the garage a better place that’s not just white, Southern male.”
Now, though, Larson is driving for the winningest Cup Series team ever, Hendrick Motorsports, and will be one of four drivers competing for the 2021 championship at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday. That raises obvious questions: Has anything actually changed in the last 18 months? Is NASCAR becoming more inclusive?
NASCAR and its leaders have said many of the right things and tout progress, but some people in the garage, fans and experts agree it still has a long way to go to back up that talk and generate real change.
Kyle Larson at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in August. (Sean Gardner/Getty Images)
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The most outwardly noticeable action NASCAR took — both after Larson’s transgression and amid a broader discussion of racism in the U.S. — was banning flying the Confederate flag at races and events.
While NASCAR president Steve Phelps recently called that “the proudest day” for him as a leader, the driver who spearheaded the effort, Bubba Wallace, still thinks the flags are too prevalent among fans of the sport, particularly outside of race tracks.
“I don’t know if there’s a way to police that since it’s not on their property,” Wallace said. “Just rolling in, people could be coming to the race for the first time, and they see that and they’re like, ‘Eh, we’re gonna keep driving.’ So trying to eliminate those sightings as much as we can leading into a race track is big.”
Change, Phelps and the rest of NASCAR are finding, comes slowly. He acknowledged that, prior to the national outcry over a Minneapolis police officer murdering George Floyd in May 2020, racism was not something that resonated with some in racing.
“I would suggest before June of 2020, our industry wasn’t ready, and that sounds awful,” Phelps said on the Champions of Change podcast, produced by RISE, which advocates for social justice in sports and partnered with NASCAR. “And I guess in some ways, I don’t feel great about that. … 18 months later now, it is the single most important decision we’ve made. And it’s working. We have a brand-new fan base that’s being welcomed by fans who have been fans of the sport for decades.”
Throughout the last 10 years, NASCAR’s fan base has become more diverse. In 2021, one out of four fans identifies as a person of color, compared with one out of five in 2011, according to research conducted by Nielsen Scarborough.
Brandon Thompson, who became NASCAR’s vice president of diversity and inclusion in June 2020, called the banning of Confederate flags “a seminal moment” because “there’s never a wrong time to do the right thing.” Other efforts at increasing inclusion and broadening the appeal of the sport — both for fans and young drivers and pit crew members — have been less visible and the results more nebulous.
Changing a Culture: NASCAR’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion initiatives (since May 2020)
Established an Employee Diversity Council and the Executive Ally Council, which collaborate on DE&I strategies, leadership and other ideas
Introduced employee resource groups focused on people of color, women and members of the LGBTQ+ community as forums for shared experiences and to foster a stronger community network among employees
Established the DE&I Committee, which identifies industry-wide collaborative opportunities while sharing best practices and key learnings. Representatives are from the sanctioning body, tracks, teams, drivers and official partners.
Aligned with advocacy organizations focusing on women, BIPOC and the LGBTQ+ community, including:
During the 2020-21 offseason, RISE conducted workshops for more than 1,500 NASCAR employees, drivers and other industry personnel about racism, anti-racism and unconscious biases. NASCAR is looking to expand it in 2022 to gender biases and sexual harassment.
The employee councils, Thompson said, were designed so NASCAR employees could “speak candidly in a safe space” in the aftermath of Larson’s racist slur, civil rights protests around the world and the FBI’s investigation into a suspected hate crime against Wallace after his team found a noose in its garage stall at Talladega Superspeedway in June of 2020. If NASCAR wants to lead the industry to be more diverse, inclusive and equitable, it needs to start with its own practices as an employer, Thompson said.
NASCAR has a “responsibility to make sure that the drivers are educated” about racism and social justice issues, Thompson added, and it engaged with RISE for those trainings in hopes it would help them see these issues in a new light.
“NASCAR is changing, and the people there are becoming more welcoming,” said Toni Breidinger, a 22-year-old ARCA driver of Lebanese descent who, this year, became the first Arab-American woman to compete in a NASCAR-sanctioned event.
“Society is evolving and becoming more inclusive, so definitely NASCAR is under pressure to do that, as well.”
On the competition side, Thompson pointed to the Drive for Diversity program, started in 2004, with Larson, Wallace and Daniel Suárez being the most prominent alums among about 70 total driver participants. Whether it’s recruiting potential drivers or pit crew members, Thompson noted the program is specifically targeting HBCUs, among other schools.
Bubba Wallace at Martinsville Speedway in June 2020. (Steve Helber/Pool Photo via USA TODAY Network)
Continuing expansion efforts, NASCAR announced in September its partnership with I AM ATHLETE, the athlete-led YouTube show founded by former NFL All-Pro Brandon Marshall. I AM ATHLETE – NASCAR explores the sport and its culture in 16 episodes, and Wallace, Suárez and Phelps were in the first three episodes, in addition to Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kyle Busch, Breidinger and the NASCAR Drive for Diversity Pit Crew Development Program being featured in an I AM ATHLETE collaboration earlier this year.
NASCAR knows it can foster engagement with new fans if they see people like them represented in the sport. New, high-profile celebrities getting involved in NASCAR can help. Michael Jordan and Pitbull became team owners prior to this season and have announced educational programs aimed at minority students.
Others who have become NASCAR fans include Super Bowl champion Bernard Pollard, who took an interest in the sport after seeing Wallace on CNN with Don Lemon. He’s all in on NASCAR now, regularly expresses enthusiasm for racing (he got an iRacing rig last year) and was honored at the NASCAR Drive for Diversity Awards. Wallace said athletes and other celebrities getting involved in the sport is giving it a boost, as with New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara being named NASCAR’s first Growth and Engagement Advisor in June.
“Having him be a brand ambassador is big for our sport,” Wallace said of Kamara. “And you just get a lot of positive traction from the celebrity side of things, that [they] are talking about our sport. So it’s good.”
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For all that NASCAR has done, the fact remains that Wallace is the lone Black driver racing at the highest level. Thompson acknowledged the sport still has “got some ground to make up.”
Others are more blunt.
“NASCAR hasn’t had to really reckon with the fact that it shouldn’t be a Southern, white sport,” said Dr. Louis Moore, a sports historian and professor at Grand Valley State in Michigan.
“I think they got comfortable marketing to that, unlike other sports. … And I think that’s what separates NASCAR is that it’s taken so long for them to realize that we can’t just be the Southern, white sport.”
A Confederate flag in the infield before a NASCAR race at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina in 2015. (AP Photo/Terry Renna)
Because of that, NASCAR is still building up a base of diverse fans and instituting policies and programs that can help it expand. But the pace can be frustrating for those involved in the sport.
“They are making an effort, and I do see some change,” Breidinger said. “Is it fast enough? No, I don’t think so. But I do see them doing things and trying to be more inclusive. … I feel like they’re a little bit behind, and it’s a little bit slow. But at least there’s some sort of effort.”
Specifically, NASCAR needs to do a better job of uplifting minorities in the sport, Breidinger said, with more exposure and financial backing to help overcome institutional racism. Upon learning she was the first Arab-American woman to compete in a NASCAR sanctioned race, she said she was shocked and disappointed no one had come before her.
Despite being celebrated at the NASCAR Drive for Diversity Awards in October, she said she previously applied twice for the Drive for Diversity program — which covers drivers’ expenses for competing — but was denied (NASCAR said the 2021 class has eight drivers in the program, but that number can changed each year “based on need.”) Breidinger grew frustrated that she “never received any sort of support” from the sanctioning body in terms of help securing funding, adding that the mere fact that NASCAR even has diversity awards shows how far the sanctioning body still has to go.
Breidinger said she continues struggling to find funding, which prevented her from running a full-time ARCA season and ultimately kept her from making her Truck Series debut.
Moore cited additional funding as one way to remove some economic barriers for women and people of color attempting to break into NASCAR upper echelon.
“They have a history of intentionally keeping people out,” Moore said. “So it’s all about what NASCAR wants to do. … You really have to be invested in this if this is how you want to grow, and if you have folks not on board, then you’ll just be stuck where you’re at.”
Whether it’s for those already competing or people with dreams of doing so, access to racing limits who can reach the sport’s top levels, he said. And he drew an analogy to Jackie Robinson.
“Jackie breaks in, but there’s a whole lot of other Black players that are there waiting,” Moore said. “If you’re a minority driver, the barrier was set up against you, but you’re really coming from a small pool [compared with all the players in the baseball’s Negro League], right? So I think the challenge is a lot harder, and it might be designed that way to limit access, to limit opportunities.”
Providing educational opportunities for drivers and fans on local Black history, like when NASCAR goes to Daytona or Talladega, would be one way to help grow the sport with new fans, Moore suggested. He also said drivers could take notes from someone like DeAndre Hopkins, the Arizona Cardinals wide receiver who wore a helmet sticker with Denmark Vesey’s name on it, prompting people to Google the man who was enslaved, bought his freedom in 1799 and plotted a rebellion.
Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota on pit road at Talladega in June 2020. (Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
Similarly, in 2020, Denny Hamlin — a driver who will compete against Larson for a title on Sunday and co-owner of Wallace’s 23XI Racing team with Jordan — raced with a National Civil Rights Museum paint scheme after visiting the museum. NASCAR needs more sponsors, like FedEx, willing to paint these messages on their cars, Moore said, along with more forward-thinking team owners and leaders who push beyond a “shut up and race or shut up and dribble” mentality.
Moore also suggested some kind of reparations program with a clear goal of NASCAR compensating for some of its past sins. One recent example of the sport doing exactly that came at Daytona International Speedway in August when NASCAR presented Wendell Scott’s family with a trophy honoring his 1963 victory — the first for a Black driver at the sport’s highest level. At the time, NASCAR declared runner-up Buck Baker the winner; track officials acknowledged hours later that Scott had lapped the field twice. Still, Scott — who died in 1990 and was posthumously inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2015 — wasn’t credited with the victory for another two years, but it wasn’t until August that his family got an official celebration.
Metcalf said amends like that make him “really proud to be a part of the NASCAR community.”
“It’s so hard to win races and to be robbed of that moment,” he added. “But then to see at Daytona last month that trophy given to his son, it’s like, OK, we’re doing something. I don’t know what we’re doing, but we’re making progress. We’re thinking about things. We’re trying to go back and look and see where we missed it and trying to fix it and at least bring awareness to it.”
Steve Phelps and Bubba Wallace with the family of NASCAR Hall of Fame driver Wendell Scott at Daytona International Speedway in August. (Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
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When it comes to appealing to and attracting new, young and diverse fans and NASCAR-hopefuls, exposure is at the top of the list for Thompson. But priorities and timely execution are two different things.
For fans like Phil Spain — a 31-year-old lifelong fan from Maryland who is Black — NASCAR is trending in the right direction, and while he thinks Larson using a racist slur never should have happened, the incident ignited some necessary changes in NASCAR’s approach. But he said the sport’s success with those efforts “still remains to be seen, honestly.”
“I want to see more young African American men and women; I want to see more Latinx people involved,” Spain said.
Instead of celebrating people only during Black History Month, Hispanic Heritage Month or LGBT History Month, as examples, Spain hopes to see more year-round efforts from NASCAR showing pride in its diversity. Beyond lip service and hashtags, he said NASCAR needs to “practice what they’re preaching” to have a meaningful impact. It’s all about outreach in his eyes, and he said while he knows there’s no overnight solution, he thinks holding more clinics or demonstrations in predominantly Black communities would help attract fans and potential competitors. And once they’re already at race tracks, Spain said areas in the fan zones dedicated to Black history or The Trevor Project or another advocacy group could help with education.
To that point, NASCAR and RISE said they’re planning to have a joint fan experience for 2022.
“NASCAR is doing the right thing,” Spain said. “They are promoting it outside, but change has to come from within the fan base.”
NASCAR is proud to support the important work of @TrevorProject this month and all year long.
In the last year and a half, Spain said he’s connected on Twitter with several Black NASCAR fans, and he hopes to see Black racing fans specifically targeted with ad campaigns and promotions. But he said it has to be a genuine effort because “we can tell within two seconds of something happening where it looks like we’re being pandered to.”
In addition to building career pipelines for people of color, Thompson said NASCAR has contracted a marketing agency to consult “on what our Black consumer strategy should be” while still trying to be authentic. And some things can’t be manufactured, he said, like when “the true character of the NASCAR industry” was on display as the whole Talladega garage rallied around Wallace when it was thought he might have been a victim of a hate crime.
“I honestly think that NASCAR knows what they have,” Moore said. “They know that Black people like NASCAR, and they need to figure out and be honest with themselves if they really want those fans, right? … Do you really want those fans? Are you tapping into that or not? And if so, then go full out.”
Of course, there is a vocal opposition to every stride NASCAR has made, performative or otherwise. Some still incorrectly believe the noose found at Talladega was a hoax orchestrated by Wallace. Those Confederate flags are still seen outside of race tracks. Some would prefer drivers just shut up and race. And the latest reminder NASCAR still has a way to go to be fully inclusive was Kyle Busch using an ableist slur Sunday after the Martinsville Speedway race.
NASCAR is hardly the only sport struggling to deal with fans whose viewpoints don’t align with where the sport wants to move.
“Racist fandom is part of American sports, traditionally,” Moore said. “It’s always been there in every sport. But there’s ways to deal with it. And I think the NBA recently is starting to kick fans out, right? Just take away their tickets. We see soccer in Europe dealing with this all the time where you’re gonna stop letting fans come in. And so NASCAR has to figure out what they want to do, and it has to be [a] no-nonsense approach.”
Metcalf is encouraged every time he hears about someone in the NASCAR garage calling out racist behaviors or language, but he said he hasn’t forgotten the times fans in the grandstands hurled insults at him and made him feel unwelcome. He can guess what someone with a Confederate flag tattoo thinks of him.
People have made comments about Breidinger’s skin color, she recalled, and every time she races, she hears sexist comments directed at her.
“I definitely do hope that we get to that point where we’re all just equal and there’s no need for labels,” Breidinger said. “For me, people ask, like, ‘All these headlines have you saying, ‘Arab-American female.’ If you want to be equal, why are you mentioning it?’ Because we’re not equal yet.”
(Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
At Talladega in October, Wallace won his first Cup race and became just the second Black driver, following Scott, to win at NASCAR’s highest level. But Wallace is still often booed — second in boos behind Busch, he suspects — and said his haters have actually gotten louder since 2020.
“It’s definitely taken a turn for the worse as far as fan interaction,” Wallace said. “That’s them. They’re the ones who have to lay down at night and realize what’s going on. … Some just may not like me as a driver, which is fine. But it’s just ironic that the boos have gotten louder and more consistent ever since last year. And so it’s just, I guess, quite the timing.”
However, the majority of NASCAR fans have been supportive of the sport’s anti-racism and inclusion efforts, Thompson said, noting that the governing body works to not let a vocal minority determine the narrative about the sport.
“No one’s in the business, particularly nowadays, of firing their customers,” Thompson said. “But we also know and understand that true NASCAR fans are going to continue to be supportive about this, and if lifelong fans decide that this is not for them anymore because they’re opposed to the sport being more inclusive, then unfortunately, we’re OK with continuing to move on.”
The Ava DuVernay-produced biopic delivers a powerful look at racism in America.
Five years and a few months after Colin Kaepernick first took a knee and changed the course of America’s discourse on race, he tells his story. In the Netflix series Colin in Black & White, out Friday, Kaepernick and co-creator Ava DuVernay meticulously present a recreation of the exiled quarterback’s formative high school years interspersed with documentary-style snippets about America’s formative years — and the racism underpinning them.
It’s impossible to not see this limited series biopic as a direct answer to many of the questions that arose after Kaepernick kneeled during the national anthem. What is he so mad about? How can a pro athlete making millions really believe he’s been subjected to racism? Sports are the ultimate meritocracy, and he made it to where everyone wants to be so how, exactly, could he have the audacity to complain?
Though Kaepernick’s experiences — and how he’s been able to process them in these subsequent years by understanding the history of Black people here — are diligently presented, it is also impossible to believe that any of the people asking those questions will bother to watch, let alone be swayed, because it is impossible to believe that they ever asked those questions in earnest. That may be a cynical view but also an unavoidable one, as politicians across the country attempt to erase whatever they’ve decided Critical Race Theory is.
Well, it is this. Or at least this is a palatable version of it, in micro, packaged with a side of sports and teen drama. The six episodes, each about 30 minutes long, are narrated by present-day Kaepernick. He has been elusive over the years, avoiding cameras and interviews and never appearing to truly desire to be the voice of a movement for which he was already the face.
Now, he’s ready.
There are scenes from Colin in Black & White that might jar some white people, particularly the opening of the series when football players lining up to be measured at the NFL combine are transformed into slaves being sold at market. But Kaepernick shows little rage over the need to explain what he shouldn’t have to. He is patient, sincere.
His high school journey is undertaken by the actor Jaden Michael, who manages to capture Kaepernick’s bewilderment over going from the adopted son of white parents to a Black man in a conservative part of California, while also delivering the burgeoning confidence that would later manifest in bicep-kiss celebrations that so irked certain fans once Kaepernick reached the NFL.
(Getty Images)
His parents are portrayed by Mary-Louise Parker and Nick Offerman. They aren’t always rounded characters, but they serve a purpose; though mostly well-meaning, Parker is consistently startled by the idea that having a Black child could be so different from having a white one, while Offerman seems largely doubtful than anything of the like might be the case because America and freedom and God and what not. In other words, they represent the white people who cannot fathom the idea that they could be racist — we have a Black son! — because they have the privilege of not even having to considering their own privilege. They try new recipes and set up dates for Colin with acceptable girls and feel good about the troops and do everything except consider how a country that flourished through slavery later refined that racism into something less overt but almost as effective.
Colin figures all that out on his own. We see him getting cornrows for the first time, an homage to Allen Iverson, and also see how his white coaches recoil to the point that he opts instead to assimilate. We see those white coaches deploy age-old stereotypes as Kaepernick pushes to play quarterback and is beaten out by an inferior white player: “I need to know my quarterback has full command of the offense,” one says, “And Johnson? He’s the prototype I’m looking for.”
Young Colin experiences microaggressions — is surrounded by them — but also begins to meet other Black people and learn about a culture that had been not only hidden from him but dubbed unseemly, unsophisticated.
Colin in Black & White also tells the story of Kaepernick’s quest to become a quarterback, showing his inability to secure a Division I scholarship offer until after his senior season had ended. In the face of intense pressure to play baseball — the show offers a broad indictment of that sport’s culture — he never relents from his dream. “Being a quarterback isn’t an option for me, it’s in my blood,” he says at one point.
The series ends with Colin on his way to play football at Nevada, with a narrative trick showing an elder Colin writing a letter to him in which he repeats over and over, “Trust your power.”
Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
“You will earn the title of quarterback at the highest level,” Kaepernick narrates as he writes. “You will be a trailblazer.
“But while you focus on becoming a quarterback, something else will be happening. Something extraordinary. Something that you can feel, but don’t have the words or wisdom to articulate. You will learn to love who you are and not give a damn that who you are makes some people uncomfortable. You will know that no matter how much people try to control you, that they cannot break you. You will learn to find beauty in places where the world tells you there is none. And, because of these things, you will know when people try to tell you when and where to be a quarterback, it doesn’t matter. Because you will see, you are more than a quarterback. Much more.”
DuVernay has been doing this work for years now, with Selma and 13th and When They See Us, and she was the right choice to help Kaepernick tell this part of his story. He’s only just beginning; his publishing house has release a chidlren’s book and, earlier this month, Abolition for the People: The Movement for a Future with Policing & Prisons.
But now he has explained this part of his life, divulging the source of his pain — at one point his parents hide a picture of him because his Black date is so dark-skinned — while trying to explain how much playing quarterback, a job he would later give up to make a point, actually meant to him.
For many people, Kaepernick came into existence the moment they saw him kneeling, or heard a presidential candidate rail against him or TV pundits exclaim he was attacking the country and the people who love and protect it.
Now, for the record, there is more to the story.
Even the most obvious questions have been answered.
To those who gasped at a man dropping to one knee at the moment they thought he should have stood in unity, here is further explanation.
If only they bother to watch and listen, this time.
