#obviously racism is in every form of motorsports but it's so much more prevalent in formula than fucking. nascar

[juwaiin]

Racism in F1 is so, so prevalent and normalized and I’m sick and tired of everyone saying ‘these conversations are SO important’ only to 1- go about them in the most reductive way possible, and 2- only accept these ‘conversations’ from WHITE people who water them down. These conversations are ugly. They aren’t meant to be palatable and presenting them that way just takes away from the weight of it all??

The racism in F1 is very deep-rooted. Listing every incident would necessitate its own post (and raise my blood pressure). We could talk about the abuse that Lewis Hamilton has received from the FIA, the media, and other drivers; the way Zhou Guanyu is spoken about generally; the way Yuki Tsunoda is CONSTANTLY painted as aggressive and receiving severe punishments while other drivers get away with being more aggressive and offensive; The way GP organizers played the Mexican hat dance instead of the national anthem for Pedro Rodríguez; and so on. My point is, racism has been integrated into and accepted in this sport since its inception, and that has cultivated a fanbase that also normalizes racism!!

Obviously, the governing body of the sport is racist, but so are your favorite drivers! I know it’s an uncomfortable truth, but the way some of you actively defend these actions is insane. I won’t give any examples lest I get accused of targeting anyone and dog-piled again (see: the barrage of racial slurs in my anon box lol).

Besides the drivers, some of YOU actively engage in racism. I am specifically speaking about the fandom here because this is something we can actually recognize and change. I received SEVENTY anon messages calling me various slurs after criticizing a driver, which I feel like I don’t need to explain why that was a deranged reaction. A creator was also recently under fire for excluding THREE hijabis specifically, which,,,, One is a coincidence. Three is intentional. The fact that the creator was comfortable doing this so blatantly, and that nobody around noticed, just goes to show how normalized all of this is.

A lot of the phrases that are commonly thrown around are also, frankly, rooted in xenophobia. One example is when hosting countries in the middle east and Asia as a whole are labeled as ‘human rights violators’ when the United States (which hosts THREE GPs) and the continent of Europe (which makes up the majority of the calendar!) are funding multiple genocides? Listen, I lean as left as left goes and it goes without saying that all of these countries have ethical issues, but why are the ones that are constantly highlighted somehow coincidentally the ones that aren’t in the west?

It isn’t enough to ‘have these conversations. Stop defending drivers who don’t deserve the defense. Stop regurgitating phrases without considering the implications of them. Stop engaging in active racism!!