One of the most successful Formula 1 racers and only black driver, Lewis Hamilton has spoken out about the racism that’s apparent in his sport.
Making it his mission to change the dynamic, the 36-year old felt compelled to take a stand after George Floyd’s murder sparked the Black Lives Matter movement.
Kneeling before each race, sporting T-shirts that supported his stance and calling out his fellow drivers for not obliging his lead, the seven-time Champion feels there’s still so much to be done to fight racism.
The British racer who started his career in the sport as a go-kart racer spent the past year off the track vocal about racial injustice. Years of pent-up frustrations and suppressed personal taunts all erupting due to him being unable to contain the racial prejudice any longer.
When he first started in Formula 1, Hamilton bit his tongue and complied keeping his father’s words to “always do the talking on the track in mind.”
Speaking to The Guardian, he spoke of his experience at the Styrian Grand Prix.
“This wrath of emotions came up and I couldn’t contain myself,” Lewis Hamilton expressed.
“I was in tears. And this stuff came up that I’d suppressed over all these years. And it was so powerful and sad and also releasing.
“And I thought, ‘I can’t stay quiet. I need to speak out because there are people experiencing what I’m experiencing, or 10 times worse. Or 100 times worse. And they need me right now.’
“And so when I did speak out, that was me letting the Black community know: ‘I hear you and I stand with you’.
Hamilton first took the knee at the Austrian Grand Prix, a month after George Floyd’s murder, wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt, he rallied 14 drivers to join him the gesture wearing End Racism messaging, 6 others didn’t partake.
The racer called out some of his competitors on social media saying, “I see those of you who are staying silent, some of you the biggest stars yet you stay silent in the midst of injustice.”
He also took a hit at Formula 1 as a whole and said it lacks leadership.
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