Richard Petty Motorsports driver, Bubba Wallace, has requested that NASCAR remove flags from its tracks commemorating the former, rebellious Confederacy from the country’s Civil War era. Wallace is NASCAR’s only African-American driver and the Confederate flag has long been associated with the issue of slavery from the country’s past.
Wallace recently wore a shirt that read “I Can’t Breathe/Black Lives Matter” before Sunday’s NASCAR race in Atlanta, and spoke out about the matter.
“My next step would be to get rid of all Confederate flags,” said Wallace in an interview on CNN. “No one should feel uncomfortable when they come to a NASCAR race. So it starts with Confederate flags. Get them out of here. They have no place for them.”
The 26-year-old Wallace is a native of Alabama and well aware of the history of the flag to certain segments of the population.
“There’s going to be a lot of angry people that carry those flags proudly, but it’s time for change,” he said. “We have to change that, and I encourage NASCAR — we will have those conversations to remove those flags.”
NASCAR’s next race is tonight at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia and Wallace’s Richard Petty Motorsports car will be outfitted with a Black Lives Matter blackout paint scheme in the race to promote racial equality.
“I think it’s going to speak volumes for what I stand for,” said Wallace in a Twitter video. “We knew the Martinsville race was open, we did not sell sponsorship for that, and it sparked an idea of, ‘Why not run a #blackout car?’ The team brought that idea to me, and I jumped all over it.”