The Reaction to NASCAR's Decision to Ban the Confederate Flag From Events
NASCAR announced it will ban the Confederate flag at all events, the decision coming after driver Bubba Wallace had called on the sport to do so.
The announcement led to a lot of reaction, with many celebrating the move.
However, one driver, Ray Ciccarelli, said he would be leaving at season's end as a result of the new policy.
Sports Illustrated host Robin Lundberg talked with Reese Waters of Get Up DC about the significance of NASCAR's decision and he explained that this could be a moment where a lot of people in the country are beginning to open their minds.
Read the full video transcript:
Robin Lundberg: NASCAR has banned the Confederate flag from all its events, and for more, I'm joined by my good friend Reese Waters, host of "Get Up DC" in Washington, D.C.. Now, Reese, obviously this was received well, but, you know, perhaps it's emblematic of the times we're in as a country right now that it was still there in the first place to be banned now.
Reese Waters: Oh, I totally agree with you there, and we're seeing that with regards to bases and Confederate monuments and things all over the country where people are opening their eyes and saying, I can't believe that this is actually a thing and action that we have to take in 2020. And the longer it's there, the longer I think inertia sets in. And you just say, you know what, the world has fallen apart since these things have stayed here. We don't necessarily want to make so drastic a change. But one reason why I appreciate that NASCAR did this is some of my skepticism of a lot of the entities that have jumped behind the Black Lives Matter banner. Namely, the NFL clearly had a different stance when their feet were held to the fire because of how they felt like their audience would react. And even in this moment, I can't imagine that these NASCAR drivers feel like their audience is primed to receive this message right now. But still, they went ahead and did it. So I give them a ton of credit. NASCAR doing this in 2020 is basically like the NFL doing this in like 2000 maybe, maybe 1985 like that. That's where they are right now as a sport.
Robin Lundberg: Yeah. I mean I made the point about the NFL. Whatever you think about how the NFL got to the point, it's at now the fact that they're there I think is significant because it represents that the public shift. And you referenced NASCAR's audience. You know, you could go to the reply section to their tweet if they had one driver quip. What what would you say to the people who are saying that this was the wrong decision and are mad.
Reese Waters: Well, look, I would just like people to go through the process that the drivers themselves went through. So everything that I've heard and understood about how this came about was that Bubba Wallace was on this text thread with all of these drivers and they started communicating about these protests and what exactly the grievances of the people hitting the streets were. And a lot of the drivers eyes were opened. Now would like to think that they were a little bit more aware of things going on in society outside their own experience. But maybe they weren't. You know, I'm not in their shoes. But once they were exposed to it, once they kind of understood what the concerns were, their attitude was that they wanted to participate and they got aggressive and they got an action. That is the the open minded and the open hearted process that I would like to see more people undertake today in this society, because I don't feel like this really should be a partisan issue. I don't feel like it should be a political issue. I don't really feel like there should be sides to this. We're talking about treating all human beings in an equitable manner. And really, if you are opposed to that, you're opposed to the ideals that this country was founded on.
Robin Lundberg: Yeah, it's really hard to construct any counter argument to that. So I will not do so Reese, because you and I are in agreement. Appreciate your time.
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