NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace, perhaps best known for the 2020 hate hoax, has just sullied his image with NASCAR’s fan base yet again, this time by attacking those in the stands that he thinks are insufficiently in favor of diversity and inclusion.
That nasty comment came when he hosted “Bubba’s Block Party” at the DuSable Black History Museum in Chicago. The ostensible goal of the party was to encourage black Americans to get engaged with watching NASCAR, a sport that very few people in that demographic are interested in.
During the event, he was asked why he is so unpopular with NASCAR fans. Instead of showing some understanding of people being upset about his battering the battering ram on the sport’s traditions, particularly the waving of Confederate flags and celebration of Dixie culture, Bubba went on the attack.
He said that many NASCAR fans hate him not because of who he is or what he stands for but because they are not willing to “change” and embrace diversity and inclusion rather than the traditions they like celebrating. In his words:
“I’ve always said there’s three types of people: the ones that will accept change, the ones that are on the fence about change and the ones that will never change. You can never get to the minds of the people that will never change, so we don’t really focus our energy on those people. We try to convince the ones that are on the fence about change. ‘This is what can happen. Stick with us, and let’s ride it out to the end.”
Continuing, he went on to say that those tradition-minded folks are bad because they don’t like inclusivity as he defines it but then vowed to “continue to march forward,” saying, “And the ones that are OK with living life on the edge and accepting change right away, let’s do it. Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t like changes that we’re doing as a sport to tap into different demographics and make the sport more welcoming and inclusive, and that’s on them. They have to live with that. For us, we continue to march forward.”
This isn’t the first time that Bubba has whined about people not liking him because of diversity. He did so when he was attacked by fans for making a vulgar gesture while driving. He said, after fans got mad at his vulgar gesture: “People think that I love to stay in the headlines for different reasons and I actually hate it. The finger’s become such a big thing when Bubba Wallace does it. But you have guys that get wrecked and they walk on the track and shoot one bird or shoot the double-bird and we laugh about it and move on. But when Bubba Wallace does it we gotta shut the whole state down, shut the whole series down, kick him out, suspend him.”
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Ignored there is that maybe people just don’t like rudeness and vulgarity, or his constant whining about everything under the sun.