For six straight days, people around the U.S. and world have been protesting against racial injustice and police brutality. They’re also demanding justice for those who police have killed, specifically George Floyd, a black man who died on Memorial Day after a white Minneapolis police officer held his knee on his neck for almost nine minutes.
While several sports figures have spoken out in support of protestors and justice for Floyd, the NASCAR community — which is based in Charlotte, one of dozens of cities with recent protests — has been largely silent.
Going into Sunday afternoon’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway, Ty Dillon was the only white Cup Series driver to speak about Floyd on social media and offer a substantial statement against systemic racism. Other drivers who have commented on social include Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr., Daniel Suárez and, after the race, Tyler Reddick.
In a lengthy Instagram post, Dillon, a 28-year-old driver in the No. 13 Germain Racing Chevrolet, wrote about racism, religion and his own white privilege. In his Instagram stories Sunday, he also linked to a video of Martin Luther King Jr. speaking about how “a riot is the language of the unheard,” which Jemele Hill originally posted to Instagram.
“I have never been accused, hated or physically harmed because of the color of my skin,” Dillon wrote, in part. “Around the country, a lot of my bothers and sisters are currently hurt deeply and have been for hundreds of years without change. I want to be part of the generation that forever changes this narrative.”
For The Win spoke with Dillon by phone Sunday night after the NASCAR race about his Instagram post, nationwide protests and why he hopes more people in the sport speak out.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
In the last several days, there have been protests across the country, including in Charlotte, against police brutality and demanding justice for George Floyd. What is your reaction to that?
I’m a Christian man and my family is Christian. And, to me, I just want to stand with those who are hurt. And in the body of Christ, color doesn’t matter. We’re all brothers and sisters, and none of us are OK if there’s a part of our family that’s hurt. And, for me to be a white male, I wouldn’t know what it’s like to have the hurt and pain of racism throughout my life or affect my family. I wouldn’t know that. I’m not educated on that level because of the way I was born.
But I do know what pain feels like, and I’ve been through pain in my life. And to see the faces of people protesting who are hurt and have been going through this for 400 years and things haven’t changed, I’m so for protesting. Things need to be changed, and we don’t need to stay silent. I think that’s why I wanted to just post and say something about the fact that I don’t want to be seen as someone who’s silent.
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The reactions in the comments to your post seem to be mostly positive with people thanking you for speaking out. Has anyone in the industry reached out (besides NASCAR senior VP and chief communications officer Eric Nyquist, who replied on Twitter)?
Before I called, Bubba Wallace reached out to me and was thanking me to begin with, which I don’t even know if it’s something to be thanked for. It’s part of my heart to love others. And not really, [no one] other than Bubba, has reached out to me. But there’s been some other crew members and stuff that have reached out that I know in NASCAR who on the post said that they’re thankful and things like that.
It certainly wasn’t my intention to look good. To me, the only way we can change it and help create change — I just want to be a part of that — is for, in every situation, we all have a role to play. We all have a purpose in life. And for me, I’m in NASCAR, and I have a platform, and I hope I can help create change in a place where people aren’t afraid to speak up because there are good-hearted people in our sport. I want to be a part of the change, so that my kids see a different world, a more equal, caring world.
Among drivers, teammates and people in the industry, are issues of racial injustice things that need to be talked about in the garage, so to speak?
I think so. I think it needs to be talked about across the world, across the country, especially in NASCAR. I think not talking about it is probably the worst thing we can do, and the conversations need to be had so we can all be educated and understand how we can make a difference and help each other. I think no matter where you are, the conversation needs to be had [if] you’re like me and growing in your understanding and education and empathy for the black community and what that looks like to be part of racism, and I say that in a humble manner.
So I feel like it’s my duty as a human to educate myself. And education — it doesn’t cost anything to talk to somebody, and we have technology. It’s a wonderful thing about technology that you can research and learn and study and educate yourself. And then just life too. Put yourself in other people’s shoes and take yourself out of your own comfort zone I think is the best way to grow. I know I have a long way to go and I just want to be clear with my statements that I’m not someone who thinks this is OK at all for one minute.
On Instagram, you wrote about how you know you’ve never been treated differently because of the color of your skin. Was there a particular moment when you became aware of your white privilege or has it been a process?
It’s an ongoing learning process. This offseason, I took a lot of time because I don’t have much more than a high school education in general, and I was so focused on my sport that I didn’t pay attention a lot in school. But I didn’t want that to be an excuse for not growing in life.
So I’ve just tried to challenge myself. I spent a lot of time studying Dr. [Martin Luther] King [Jr.] this offseason and trying to educate myself about social injustice in general. Like I said, I have a long way to go to be well-educated. I’m not standing here like I know everything. I just know the pain in my brothers and sisters in Christ that I see in their hearts, and I just want to be there to understand and to help make change.
What stuck with you so far as you read and learn about Dr. King or other civil rights activists?
The way that [King] created change through love. If you look at people who change things in the world, they did it through love. Dr. King understood how to make things change by not fighting hate with hate, but also standing up for justice in a system that’s broken. With so many things in this world, we’re so quick as human beings to fight fire with fire or hate with hate. And for me, just how he brought the movement so far through love and love of Jesus, he was an amazing Christian man and pastor, and how he just exemplified that in all that he did was special. To me, he’s a model of a man that I would love to be able to emulate, especially his love for humans, in my life as well.
At this point, you’re one of a few drivers to say something publicly about George Floyd and systemic racism. Why do you think that is?
I don’t know. I can’t speak for everyone else in our sport. I just know for me, I don’t believe that racism and hate and someone being treated lesser than because of the color of their skin is right, ever. So I can’t speak for other drivers or their motives, whether they’re speaking out or not.
I do hope more people say things. I do hope people use their voice because I think people don’t realize how much they can change the world with a platform they have and to use their platform for good and not just for self gain.
Can you expand on why you think it’s important to use that platform?
I’ve been entrusted with my platform from God as far as being a race car driver. There’s a lot of great race car drivers out there and a lot of great athletes out there who might not ever get the platform to have a bunch of followers on social media. I see it as a blessing, and if I can ever use it for good, that’s my only intention, to try to use the platform I have now and through my career to reach others and hopefully make one more person tonight or tomorrow want to speak out or talk to a friend or educate themselves on this subject.
Do you think you’ll try to talk to fellow drivers and other crew members about this?
I don’t think it’s my nature to push my fellow drivers, but you never know where your life’s going to lead you to. I, for one, won’t not say anything. I want to have conversations. If it continues where there’s more silence from our sport, I hope to reach out to more people and ask questions because I want our sport to grow to through all this and reveal the true hearts that are in this sport. Hopefully, no one will continue to remain silent.
In trying to encourage the sport or culture of it to grow, do you think it would help for NASCAR or drivers to speak out on an issue like racial injustice?
I can’t speak on behalf of NASCAR because it’s such an entity outside of me. All I can do is speak to how I feel, and that’s what I did. And if NASCAR wants to have that conversation with me, I would love to talk with them because I do feel like everyone in the world, it’s not a time to be silent.
Is there anything you’d like to add?
I think NASCAR has worked really hard, and there’s a great movement over the years to end this Southern pride mentality that’s been put over NASCAR for a long time. And there’s been an amazing amount of work in the diversity program for NASCAR, and it’s something I’ve been so proud to watch and see that it’s grown so much.
I wouldn’t want NASCAR to be shown in a bad light because they have done so much. But it is a great time for us to continue to use the platforms that we have to continue the good work that has been started. In this time, there’s no better time to show the support of NASCAR in all diverse communities.
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