There’s one thing that we can all take from the Bubba Wallace noose saga: When you’re in a hole, don’t go on Don Lemon’s show.
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Wallace, the NASCAR driver, has been the focus of the racing world for the past few weeks– especially after allegations from this past weekend that a noose was found in his Talladega garage. A team of 15 FBI agents investigated and determined that the noose was a door pull that was there since Wallace’s team occupied the garage.
The country was understandably concerned about the alleged incident. Wallace is the sport’s only full-time African-American driver. To make matters even worse, NASCAR recently announced a ban on Confederate flags from races to be more inclusive.
But Wallace hinted that he was indeed a victim on CNN and said he was mad “because people are trying to test my character and the person that I am and my integrity. He insisted that the image that he saw in his garage was not a pull “it was a noose.”
Wallace has not been eyed in any kind of hoax and the investigation appears to be closed. But it appeared that Wallace even had second thoughts about criticizing the FBI hours after the CNN disaster.
“It’s been an emotional few days,” he posted on Twitter. “First off, I want to say how relieved I am that the investigation revealed that this wasn’t what we feared it was. I want to thank my team, NASCAR and the FBI for acting swiftly and treating this as a real threat. I think we’ll gladly take a little embarrassment over what the alternatives could have been.”
The statement was telling. The allegation that a noose was found inside a garage was a stunning allegation, and for many Americans—whose only exposure to the sport was Will Ferrell’s “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby”—saw their prejudice toward the sport realized. The fact that a noose would be placed in a garage lived up to the left-wing’s stereotype of the sport and its fans.
Wallace pointed to the “unity we had on Monday,” when fellow races stood around his car for a touching selfie, but the sport’s sincere effort to be more inclusive was damaged by either a quick rush to judgment or something even more disturbing.