Last week at the NASCAR race in Martinsville, Virginia, in an effect to make news NBC's Dateline dressed a couple of fans up as Muslims, and gave them hidden cameras to show how "racist" NASCAR fans are.
Link to the store at NASCAR.COM In short, instead of covering the news, they decided to go out and make news. Not the first time that a media outlet has tried to make news, and I’m sure not the last time. In my personal observations of NASCAR fans, and racing fans on a local level, the only stereo type that exists is the ones that are placed on the fans by the outside world. The weekly races that myself and my wife attend in Flat Rock and Toledo have a diverse group. In both cases it’s not a white, black or Muslim atmosphere, but a family one. Parents of all races bring their children out to enjoy a family night at the races. You don’t hear much of family outings anymore. For many reasons the family unit has been trashed and forced into hiding. But go to your local race track, and you will see it first hand. The powers at NBC are just trying to make a story when there isn’t any. Shame on them! Are they jealous because they lost the NASCAR broadcast rights after this year, or are they trying to take one of remaining American pastimes and screw it up for everyone? Come to think about it, in an effect to show racists, NBC was being racists themselves, by assuming that a part of the population was going to act based on one thing and that thing was the fact that they were race fans. Isn’t this the same thing as assuming a black is a gang banger, Mexicans are lazy, or every Muslims is going to blow you up? The fact of the matter is blacks are not gang bangers, Mexicans are not lazy, Muslims are not going to blow you up, and race fans are not racists. For the record, none of the NASCAR fans bit. No fights broke out, and NBC was sent home without a story, and their tails in between their legs.