For the absolute longest time, last night and this morning, I have given much thought on how to word my opinion on the situation with Kyle Larson and the iRacing event from Sunday night that was ran with 63 drivers on the historic Monza, Italy oval. After the thoughts, here is the best way I know how to state my opinion……
Let me put this disclaimer out here FIRST: In NO WAY, SHAPE, FORM, OR FASHION whatsoever do I condone the use of the slur that was used by Kyle Larson. I have several friends from the African American community, as well as other ethnicities. We treat each other with respect. Now to the other aspects….
In my sole, honest opinion, the gaming site “Twitch” shouldn’t be allowed to broadcast an official sports league event. The official league, whether its IndyCar or NASCAR should designate ONE official streaming platform to stream events along with iRacing.com. For example, NASCAR could use Podium eSports in combination with iRacing to do their events. Twitch has virtually cost Bubba Wallace a sponsor, and cost Kyle Larson his ride, all because the Twitter keyboard warriors CONSTANTLY keep something stirred up from anything and everything they can find, NO MATTER WHAT IT PERTAINS TO: Sports related or non sports related. I am a constant twitter user, and some of the stuff I see on there blows my mind on a daily basis, and things I have heard on Twitch are ten thousand times worse than what Kyle said. Here is my next aspect, and its about to get deeper…..
Before any judgement is made on my thoughts, re-visit my disclaimer statement and READ IT CLEARLY. We as humans need to use more of a common sense approach to life and look at all sides of a picture before we absolutely derail someones life. This is my reasoning behind my statement. There needs to be a clear definition of malicious intent or non-malicious intent behind anything that’s said. In layman’s terms: meant to cause intentional harm, or meant to be in a joking manner. It is very clear that what was said by Kyle was said in a purely joking manner to his close friend that was spotting for him, on his channel. When the soundbite was released, CORPORATE AMERICA didn’t have a choice to do what they did,because he would have been perceived as racist if they had chose to continue backing him. But they didn’t. He lost Lucas Oil, Credit One, McDonalds, and First Data all within a span of about 2 hours, which immediately put Chip Ganassi in a very tight box. Do I think it was a knee-jerk reaction? Absolutely. I am a HUGE believer in gathering pure facts behind ANY situation before ANY conclusion is made. Also I am a huge believer in repentance and second chances. Yesterday, Kyle made his formal apology on his mistake he made. There’s your repentance part. But as of today with him being out of the 42 car, I am not sure he will get a firm second chance this year. He will eventually…see AJ Allmendinger, Kurt Busch, and others that have been knocked down and gotten back up. If any huge corporation executive would walk through the pits at a local track, dirt or asphalt, they would fall flat of their face at some of the things said that are way worse than what was said on Sunday.
In today’s society, there is no excuse for any form of racism, no matter the ethnicity of the person. That’s the only way the world will be a better place, although we know that it will never go away. Slurs of that manner are used a billion times a day, in many avenues of life. Musicians in the hip hop world use it religously. Its used in movies quite a bit. What came from Kyle was CLEARLY not used in a malicious, harmful manner. If it had been on the closed channel, we wouldn’t be having this firestorm raging right now. But he had the open channel for all drivers on by mistake, and didn’t realize it. We are all human, we make mistakes. But with it being on a video game….a career didn’t deserve to be derailed.
Corprate America: Its Ready, Aim, Shoot………Not SHOOT, READY, AIM.