News and views on motorsports

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Racism And Amusement

The Hamil-shit has been making headlines once again. Hasn't the world had enough of this idiot? And as you probably know he invades the headlines once more because some people somewhere decided he is a victim of racist abuse.

Before I launch into that, let me just say that as an South East Asian who lived in England for many years, I too, did suffer my fair share of racist abuse. This can range from looks of discrimination or in one case of a drunk dumb-ass white trash Geordie being called a fucking stinking chop suey whilst simply minding my own business. Yes, some white folk can be fucking assholes but hey, these are not exclusive to caucasians. I have to admit, that lots of Asians are bloody racists as well. And as I have emphasised, I said some.

The point of course is that no matter what race or colour there will be assholes among them. Prior to the so-called "racial abuse" in Valencia in the past weeks, there were some amusing banners floating about in the stands. My personal favourite read something like: Hey Hamilton, does daddy still help you pee? Personally, I think his father still does.

But now along comes another bunch of fans making sweeping statements about Hamil-shit and more seriously, his ilk. To me, comments specifically targetted at a person is fair enough. Sweeping statements about the person's race or colour, bete noir.

And this now spoils the whole thing doesn't it? Now, every single "abusive" (though enormously funny) comments about this punk will be viewed as some sort of racial abuse. You can bet the partisan British press and the McLaren Mercedes PR machine will make it so.

And I get the feeling that the FIA themselves are not comfortable with their little darling (who they hope can banked upon to promote their precious Formula 1 around the world) the butt of jokes (whether these be racist in nature or otherwise). And the knee jerk reaction now will be a crackdown on all banners that do not read "I love Hamilton."

Today's headlines reports of racial abuse leading back to Shanghai last year. This is reported by none other than Hamil-shit's father (who else?). But will anyone dare to make amusing comments about this?

No comments: