Sports journalist Jason Whitlock slammed NASCAR, Bubba Wallace, and the media after the FBI concluded that a hate crime had not been committed against the black race car driver.
“The #FakeNoose story makes everyone look bad,” Whitlock wrote in a column for OutKick with the headline: “#FAKENOOSE story proves racism is our new religion.” He outlined why he believes NASCAR, the media, Wallace, NBA star LeBron James, social media, and the NFL have all applied “willful ignorance” in their decision-making over the last few years when it comes to race relations.
The FBI announced earlier this week that there was no hate crime but did say that a “garage door pull rope fashioned like a noose” was found in Wallace’s garage at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. The bureau and Justice Department said the rope had been there since 2019 that and it could not have been known at the time that Wallace would be assigned to that garage.
Whitlock, who recently announced his employment at OutKick after working at Fox Sports 1 since 2016, wrote that it’s “mind blowing” that NASCAR officials weren’t able to solve the mystery immediately after the rope was found last week.
NASCAR releases photo to the media of the garage pull rope formed as a noose from the Bubba Wallace garage Sunday at Talladega Superspeedway.
This image was provide by NASCAR. pic.twitter.com/Z4ZyBzpREF— Marty Smith (@MartySmithESPN) June 25, 2020
“It’s impossible to believe it took the FBI to solve this mystery,” Whitlock wrote. “There’s a level of willful ignorance that can only be reasonably explained by NASCAR’s desperation for relevance and traction at a time when all sports leagues and their television partners are hemorrhaging money. NASCAR leaned into the noose story because it was good for business, good TV.”
Whitlock said it is easy to demonize NASCAR since it is an “easy target” but also pointed out that “Anti-black racism is the preferred plotline of Netflix, CNN, Twitter, Hollywood, ESPN, FOX Sports, MSNBC, professional athletes, the New York Times, the Washington Post and now every sports league looking for favorable coverage.”
“Go ahead, demonize NASCAR. Its history makes it an easy, worthy target. But willful ignorance is driving the decision-making of every sports league, including the NFL and the NBA,” he said.
Whitlock also criticized the Black Lives Matter movement, which has seen a resurgence since the death in police custody of George Floyd, and claimed that the movement is driven by the philosophy of Karl Marx, which one of the co-founders recently admitted to.
That ideology, Whitlock said, is antithetical to traditional American values and has permeated sports leagues across the country, including the NFL community. He pointed out NFL Hall of Famer Brett Favre’s recent comment comparing Colin Kaepernick, who famously kneeled during the national anthem to protest police brutality, to former NFL player and Army Ranger Pat Tillman.
“This is willful ignorance,” Whitlock wrote. “It’s being embraced across sports, across America. The American media have imposed race and politics as our new religion. Many people who claim Christianity and other religions as their faith have in reality prioritized race and politics well ahead of God. They talk and worship race and politics daily, hourly. From their Twitter pulpits, they use race to evangelize for their political beliefs while rarely ever evangelizing for God.”
Whitlock continued: “That’s why any alleged sighting of racism is treated as a miracle that cannot be questioned. If you question it, you run the risk of being castigated as a non-believer at the Secular Church of Social Media.”
Whitlock criticized Wallace for his television appearance on CNN following the FBI announcement, saying he came across as “angry” and wondered why the driver didn’t apply more skepticism to the situation before going public. During that interview, Wallace insisted that it was “a straight-up noose.”
“Anti-black racism is the new religion,” Wallace said. “It can’t be questioned or studied. It’s accepted on faith. We ascribe a power to it that is greater than God’s. If anti-black racism is against you, how can you succeed? Racism is in control of black people’s destiny. Racism explains everything.”
Wallace later released a statement that said, “We’ll gladly take a little embarrassment over what the alternatives could have been,” adding that he is “relieved” the rope in his garage wasn’t what he feared it had been.
Whitlock concluded: “If you write that NASCAR, Bubba Wallace and the mainstream media all hung themselves with a #FakeNoose, you’re an insensitive racist who should be targeted by a social-media lynch mob.”
