NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace said Friday that people have a right to protest NASCAR’s recent ban on the Confederate Flag.
“It’s their right for peaceful protest,” he said during a regular briefing on social media, according to NBC News. However, they won’t see the flag flying “inside the race tracks where we’re having a good time, with the new fans that are purchasing our tickets, their favorite driver’s apparel.” (RELATED: Jemele Hill: Bubba Wallace Noose Incident ‘Disgusting Reminder Of Who’ NASCAR ‘Is For’)
Bubba Wallace says people have the right to peacefully protest NASCAR’s ban of the Confederate flag. He adds: “You won’t see cops pepper spraying them and shooting them with rubber bullets, will you?” pic.twitter.com/u1NPqodbyg
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) June 26, 2020
“Outside, they’re just going to be making a lot of noise,” Wallace said of the protesters. “It’s part of it, it’s exactly what you see on the flip side with everything going on in cities as they peacefully protest.”
NASCAR announced June 10 that they would be banning Confederate flags from all their events. They also said they will allow people to kneel for the National Anthem.
Nationwide protests have been ongoing for weeks following the death of George Floyd, a Black man who died May 25 after a police officer kneeled on his neck for over 8 minutes. Many began peacefully but escalated into riots where protesters had violent clashes with police.
“But you won’t see cops pepper-spraying them and shooting them with rubber bullets will you?” Wallace said of the people protesting against the removal of the Confederate flag.
Wallace, a Black full-time NASCAR driver, said earlier this week that he found a noose in his garage. Fans quickly rallied in support, and NASCAR put out a statement promising to find the culprit and bring him to justice. “IStandWithBubba” trended on Twitter, and NASCAR drivers pushed his car to the front of the race.
The FBI investigation, however, found that the rope had been there since 2019, and NASCAR later released a statement saying that it was a rope “fashioned like a noose.”