The Racism Card

There is currently a Button v. Hamilton argument raging on Jake Humphrey’s BBCF1 blog. Up until post number 152, nobody had so much as breathed the ‘R’ word. However it was too good to last, and someone said it. In response to one of my own posts.

Why do Lewis Hamilton fans always have to imply that if you do not like him, it is because you are racist? It’s one of those really annoying arguments that ends up taking you away from the actual point (which here is that Hamilton fans are jealous of Jenson’s success at the Australian Grand Prix and that Jenson fans tend to be quite insecure and defensive) while you try to justify why you don’t like him. The Hamilton fans, meanwhile,  sit back with smug grins and watch you squirm as you make yourself look like a fully paid up member of the BNP.

Now, I don’t like Hamilton. But it is not because he is black (he’s not actually, he’s mixed-race, and as a mixed-race friend of mine says “It’s a big difference.”). It’s because he’s an arrogant little jerk who gets himself into all kinds of trouble and then holds a press conference where he looks suitably shame-faced and speaks in a quiet, little-boy voice while he ‘apologises’ for whatever it is that he’s done. And I’m sick of it.

I’m tired of the hype that surrounds him. I’m tired of his fans. I’m tired of his attitude. I’m still pissed off for the ‘monkeys’ comment at the Monaco Grand Prix in 2007. I am probably jealous of the fact that he came into F1 and almost won the WDC, while Jenson had to wait 10 long years to win his and then have everyone say that he lucked into it. But at least I can admit to those feelings.

Hamilton fans, conversely, seem unable to admit to anything, preferring instead to play the racism card and turn the discussion into something it shouldn’t be. And that just makes my blood boil.