That’s A Fucking Noose

On May 25th, George Floyd was tortured and murdered by a police officer on camera for all the world to see. After months of being quarantined and socially distant, this gruesome video sent the entire country into a whirlwind. Tensions were high, people were participating in arguments both old and new, but it seemed like progress was being made. On June 8th, Bubba Wallace, NASCAR’s only black driver, called on NASCAR to ban the confederate flag from its events. NASCAR subsequently banned the confederate flag and was mostly praised for their decision. Eleven days later, someone on Bubba Wallace’s team found a noose in their team’s garage. The team alerted NASCAR, who then alerted the FBI, who then started an investigation into the noose that was hanging in the garage of NASCAR’s only black driver who called for the ban of a historically racist image just days earlier. The FBI ultimately found the noose was being used as a garage door pull and has been in that garage since October and no hate crime had been committed.

Today, NASCAR released an image of the noose to give full transparency on the situation.

Now I’m no knot expert, but that’s a fucking noose.

Noose

Pronunciation /no͞os/ /nus/

NOUN

A loop with a running knot, tightening as the rope or wire is pulled and typically used to hang people or trap animals.

– Oxford Dictionary

I don’t, however, think there was any malicious intent. There’s a reason racists used that type of knot to hang black people, the knot is strong and it works. The only way I can imagine any malicious intent was behind the noose in Bubba’s garage is if someone in NASCAR started leaving nooses like that in hopes that one day the only black driver in the league would find it. Unlikely, but not impossible.

So why was a noose hanging in a NASCAR garage since at least October? Why hasn’t any of the other teams that used that garage spoken up about it? And why hasn’t NASCAR banned using a god damn noose in any form or fashion?

Bizarre situation all around.