Bubba Wallace is NASCAR’s only Black full-time driver, and a story in the Chicago Sun Times heading into the weekend’s Grant Park 220 street race in the city pointed out that you can Google and find plenty of headlines that refer to him as being the most hated man in the sport.
Coincidence? Or something more sinister?
Well, the newspaper asked Wallace about that for the story, and he doesn’t seem to be overly worried about the folks who might fit into that “more sinister” box.
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“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,” he said. “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.’ And to 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.”
Not a bad answer from the 29-year-old.
“I’m a very raw and real guy,” Wallace told the Sun Times. “I’m 50-50 liked or hated, but that’s OK. I can sleep at night knowing that I’m being myself, and that’s just who I am. We’ve got to feel more comfortable just being real and being real about what we do.”
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