Dateline NBC, a news program, was looking to investigate the treatment of people in American who “look Muslim.” So they found a few dudes who fit whatever description they were looking for, and set them to… a NASCAR race.
The NASCAR people are mad. The NASCAR people can also suck me. When the rebel flags are gone from the parking lot, then maybe you can bitch about being branded racist. Until then, however, the NASCAR people and their symbol of southern pride can go fist themselves. It’s like walking into a restaurant wearing an OJ Simpson jersey and carrying a knife, and then wondering why the waiters seem a little unsure of you.
Now, don’t misunderstand… I’m not saying that all, or even most, NASCAR fans are racist. I don’t believe that. But if you’re looking for racists, I don’t think it’s that bad of an idea to follow the rebel flags.
Insomniac Says:
April 5th, 2006 at 10:57 pm
I’m not a Nascar fan and have never been to a Nascar even, but that’s a pretty weak stunt. Hey, let’s send a muslim and a camera crew into a venue w/ 100,000 people and try to get a few shots of hostility that we can then amplify to make blanket statements.
Adam Says:
April 6th, 2006 at 12:12 am
There are probably still a pretty large number of NASCAR fans that are racist assholes who refuse to accept that the Civil War ended, but I think the organization itself is trying really hard to remove itself from that sterotypical depiction of their “sport” as much as possible. I can see why they’d be pissed. Also, I agree with insomniac, that’s a pretty weak stunt.
VTHokie01 Says:
April 6th, 2006 at 12:55 am
You know, I’m not one to make fun of rednecks, being from Martinsville, VA myself, but I can’t really argue with the ‘follow the evidence’ statement above.
That being said, and not having seen the guy that Smartline NBC sent, the folks at Martinsville Speedway probably didn’t know what they were looking at. They were probably thinking, “Hey, at least he’s not a Kyle Busch fan.”
In fact, I would say in general, and especially in large crowds, you won’t see that kind of behaviour. Working class white folks are fairly civil in public. On the other hand, once you go north into the nooks and crannies of Franklin County, or west into Patrick County where there aren’t too many people, let alone Arabs, it might not be a bad idea to paint yourself white and fly the old stars and bars yourself.
VTHokie01 Says:
April 6th, 2006 at 1:03 am
Oh - I almost forgot to mention - I’ll never cease to be amazed by all of the poor, white, working class folks, and alot of middle class white folks that unfailingly vote republican, love to talk shit about “niggers,” but hop in their car and they’ve got one of three CD’s in the drive:
1) 2pac, “All Eyes on Me”
2) Three 6 Mafia (anything)
3) Trick Daddy “www.thug.com”
Or maybe Mike Jones or Paul Wall these days.
Rob Says:
April 6th, 2006 at 7:28 am
So I assume that, if the planted Muslims are treated repectfully, offered a few beers and leave with a Kenseth-autographed t-shirt, NBC will promote and edit the peice no differently than if they were ridiculed and forced into the Jimmy Spencer fan section.
RRIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT …….
As someone over at Michelle’s place commented:
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/004934.htm
“But if NBC wants to guarantee they get a negative reaction to their “plant”, all they need to do is put him in a Jeff Gordon t-shirt. The Dale Earnhardt, Jr. fans will be sure to give him a rough time!”
CheeseheadPete Says:
April 6th, 2006 at 8:58 am
You can find racist everywhere. I think if you sent somebody dressed as an Imam into GE headquarters he might get some dirty looks. Personally, I think Katie Couric would look great in a Burkha.
Wasn’t Dateline the show that blew up cars to demonstrate that there were problems with cars blowing up? They have no credibility.
Rob Says:
April 6th, 2006 at 10:05 am
VTHokie01 -
You hang out with some eclectic trash. Eminem and Black Eyed Peas rule here. And who doesn’t have Dre or Snoop?
tony Says:
April 6th, 2006 at 11:27 am
Personally, I think Katie Couric would look great in a Burkha.
Actually, Katie Couric would look BETTER in a Burkha, I think.
Dateline is cheesy, but for “news show” entertainment, their “let’s lure a pedophile to a house then surprise him with our reporter” series can’t be beat.
Mr. Bojangles Says:
April 6th, 2006 at 12:14 pm
It’s like statistics - you make and adjust from every angle until you get what you were looking for all along. If they sent a few yuppie white guys into North Philadelphia and they got roughed up, could we safely say all blacks are gangland thugs and violent monsters? I mean, by MJD’s standard, we’re just following the gang signs.
Hoyt Pollard Says:
April 6th, 2006 at 12:27 pm
As long as “NASCAR dads” are held up as the epitome of “real America,” they’re fair game for this kind of journalism. It’s not a hit piece on NASCAR. It’s supposed to be an investigation into American’s attitude toward Muslims.
Is this that different from luring pedophiles by having a Dateline producer pretend to be a 14-year-old girl in a chat room?
Cutty Says:
April 6th, 2006 at 1:37 pm
Wow, Mr. Bojangles, I guess you haven’t trashed your “Stars & Bars” flag yet. We went from proving if some people in a demographic are racists to “gangland thugs and violent monsters”. That’s a pretty big leap for someone trying to prove that racism isn’t a problem at a Nascar race. I love how people who frequently make racist statements defend those who are called racists.
Cutty Says:
April 6th, 2006 at 1:38 pm
Oh yeah, and the Black Eyed Peas are a scourge to this earth.
the mighty mjd Says:
April 6th, 2006 at 1:53 pm
Mr. B - I don’t recall saying anything like that you could assume all NASCAR fans are racist… in fact, I said, I believe they aren’t. I don’t know how you got from what I said to what you said.
Hoyt Pollard Says:
April 6th, 2006 at 2:54 pm
Again, this isn’t about NASCAR fans being racist. It’s about “red-blooded Americans’” attitudes toward Arabs. They could have done the same story in the Medowlands parking lot before a Giants game.
theotheruw Says:
April 6th, 2006 at 2:56 pm
MJD - I don’t get what you’re trying to say. The fact some NASCAR fans are racist is not a suprise. Nor the fact that there are racist bankers, doctors, mechanics, and (gasp!) football fans. Send some Muslim-looking people through a football stadium parking lot, and I’m sure they’d get some negative comments. You say that most NASCAR fans are not racist, but also say “NASCAR people and their symbol of southern pride can go fist themselves.” So, what you’re doing is stereotyping an entire demographic of people. That seems kind of…fuck, what’s the word I’m looking for?
the mighty mjd Says:
April 6th, 2006 at 4:14 pm
I’m not stereotyping a whole group of people… let me explain. I don’t like the confederate flag. I feel it’s a sign of racism. But that doesn’t mean everyone at the NASCAR track wants the flag there, it doesn’t mean they’re all racist… in fact, as someone said above, I know that the NASCAR organization itself is trying to distance themselves from the flag, and they don’t want it there, either.
But it is there… and I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think that that where the flag exists, you’re likely to find some racism. So as long as that flag is up, I don’t think the people under it can complain about being stereotyped. I guess I didn’t say what I wanted to say very well… I didn’t mean to say that all NASCAR fans can go fist themselves (in fact, that contradicts what I said immediately below it). I just think the complains by NASCAR officials on this issue are ridiculous.
Ultimately, I’m just not in an uproar at NBC for what they did. I mean, I think it’s fairly pointless, and it doesn’t prove anything we don’t already know, but most things that these “news shows” do could be described in the same way. I don’t think they set out to attack NASCAR, they just wanted to make the point they were trying to make… and I don’t think it’s unreasonable for them to look at a NASCAR track as a good place to make that point.
Mr. Bojangles Says:
April 6th, 2006 at 4:23 pm
Retard up above missed the point of my blanket statement entirely and mistakenly lumped me in as a redneck to prove his point.
Funny how you can get so pissed about one comment that inaccurately stereotypes a group of people, but the other is just fine, cuz hey, they’re just rednecks. My point was, you could put anyone in a bad situation to make a group of people look bad, and use it to boost a stereotype. And you go along with it as if it makes sense.
theotheruw Says:
April 6th, 2006 at 6:22 pm
Here’s my small issue with the NBC thing. They were trying to demonstrate that Americans who look Muslim are sometimes treated badly. Instead of having the people go into various convenience stores, they send them to a NASCAR race. NASCAR already suffers from a stigma that the fans are racist rednecks, a stigma they’re trying to remedy. Viewers watching the NBC expose on racism against Muslims see NBC sending the Muslims to the NASCAR race, and sit at home thinking “I’d always kinda heard that NASCAR fans are racist, and that’s where NBC went to find racism.”
Since this is a sports blog, I’ll try to do a sports-related analogy. What if NBC wanted to do a story on the carrying of guns without a permit? But instead of speaking to various people in jail arrested for the offense, they instead just interview NBA players Chris Wilcox, Alan Henderson, Marcus Fizer and Iverson, and talk about them getting caught carrying a handgun without a permit. Will everyone watching think that, wow, there’s a lot of people just walking or driving around with handguns on them? Or might they think - wow, the myth that NBA players are just a bunch of gangsters from the hood is true.
Both stories could have been presented a different way. But the way NBC chose to present racism against Muslims provided an underlying theme that NASCAR fans are racist rednecks.
NASCAR doesn’t like the Confederate flag either, but as they say, you can’t legislate morality. I don’t like the flag, but I also don’t like the perpetuation of stereotypes, which is what NBC intentionally or unintentionally did.
So that’s my two cents on an issue that I’m “ehh” about. If you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to wasting time on my fantasy baseball team.
Mullet Says:
April 6th, 2006 at 6:51 pm
It’s alright to pick on “rednecks” because they’re trash.
Rusty Says:
April 6th, 2006 at 7:41 pm
It’s especially stupid of NBC since they pay a lot of money to air the races on TV. Without NASCAR, what would they air on Sunday afternoons? Tennis?
unc_samurai Says:
April 6th, 2006 at 9:22 pm
We are forgetting, people, that this is NBC’s Dateline, the show that tried screw GM over by staging a fuel-tank problem. Since this is obviously not the first time the show has tried to - and I’ll be nice with my choice of words - “artificially enhance” their so-called research, I think someone should drag their producers before a board of inquiry.
DookieStyle Says:
April 7th, 2006 at 8:20 am
If stereotyping an entire group of people, people who fly the confederate flag, is wrong….then I don’t wanna be right.
telly Says:
April 7th, 2006 at 9:07 am
Everyone sucks. You’re going to find a whole bunch of people in each stereotypical group that suck… no way around it. If you look at the world as a whole, you’ll find that nearly 90% of the people walking on this planet totally, and completely, suck. That number includes children and the ederly. Suckiness, unfortunately, crosses all racial, political, gender, religious, and age barriers. Money has little to do with it. Most, if not all rich people completely blow, yet many poor people suck too. It comes down to this: 90% of people are selfish, self-involved, hateful, ignorant, and generally nasty cock-sucking bastards. And that’s not just some number I made up in my head, that’s the honest to God truth, backed by hard science and years of research.
Hoyt Pollard Says:
April 7th, 2006 at 9:10 am
NASCAR doesn’t suffer from an image problem. It’s the second most popular sport in the US (behind pro football). I’ll say it again… a NASCAR race was chosen because it’s fans supposedly represent “real America.”
DookieStyle Says:
April 7th, 2006 at 9:30 am
Also, NASCAR crowds easily jump into the 150,000 range. Hard to find a crowd like that at any U.S. sporting venue other than NASCAR.
Todd Says:
April 7th, 2006 at 10:07 am
Sorry, but this is bullshit. NBC tried to create news instead of report news. Too bad it didn’t turn out the way they wanted - nobody bothered the “Muslims”. I live in the South, and I am neither black nor white, so it’s really amazing to me how whites and blacks are equally racist, yet both refuse to believe it. What if Dateline planted some “KKK” at a Grambling football game? I wonder how many black people would be screaming then?
Alex Says:
April 7th, 2006 at 10:10 am
If these NBC producers want to see real prejudice and hatred, they should take two Jews to Riyadh or Iran.
Raj Says:
April 7th, 2006 at 11:23 am
Dateline is what it is. I agree with Mr Bojangles, “you could put anyone in a bad situation to make a group of people look bad, and use it to boost a stereotype.” Thats what Dateline did.
I am neither black nor white and I dont believe that everyone who waves the confederate flag is racist. From what I understand it is a symbol of southern pride, and has much more meaning than just the brand of racism that has been attached to it. Take the example of Muslims being terrorist. That seems to be a contradiction in itself. If you truly practice Islam, I’m fairly confident acts of terrorism are not in the Koran. These are just Arab fanatics who use the umbrella of Islam. Therefore the rest of the world becomes leary of all Muslims. Not all people in this world who wear turbans are Muslim. Which brings me back to my original point, not all confederate flag bearers are racist.
But as MJD said, if you wanna find something like Dateline was looking for, you follow the trail to the masses. But that works for everything. You wanna find racist blacks, go into the ghetto , you may just find a few. You wanna find racist indians, you go where they all gather. Dateline could make a story and angle it anyway they want in this arena. So I dont’ blame Nascar, their name was unfairly dragged thru the mud on this.
There’s a show Black.White running on FX, that will give you perspective of people being real in real situations.
Hoyt Pollard Says:
April 7th, 2006 at 12:22 pm
Stop it. There is nothing dishonest about this at all. It wasn’t the NBC Nightly News, it was Dateline. These news magazine shows do this kind of thing all the time. They plant a man and a woman arguing in a park and film it see how people react when it gets physical.
magnolia Says:
April 7th, 2006 at 6:20 pm
Raj, you are exactly right. I am from the South and the Confederate Flag is a symbol of Southern pride to me. It is so frustrating to hear people not from the South declare as fact that this flag is a symbol of racism.
Horatio Llamas Says:
April 7th, 2006 at 7:18 pm
Todd- Why is Muslims in quotes? And your KKK example implies that all muslims are racist scumbags.
I do agree that there are dipshits that come in every color. But we all “cum” in the same color.
And as far as souther pride goes- seceding from the Union and causing the bloodiest war in the history of the continent.
VTHokie01 Says:
April 7th, 2006 at 11:16 pm
Southern Pride? Yeah, I’m just not sure about that right now. If you want to have pride, fly your state flag or the U.S. Flag. The Confederate States of America withdrew from the United States of America. They lost the Civil War to the United States of America.
Why do all these bamas insist on waving a flag of a country that doesn’t exist, and hasn’t for over 100 years now? How many of these bamas do you think know one shred of any kind of history about the actual Civil War? Maybe you do, Magnolia, but do you honestly think everyone who waves the stars and bars is proud of the country that doesn’t exist and lost the Civil War? Was Dale Earnhardt sposored by the CSA? Why are the two connected in some cheap marketing sham?
If you want to have a Flag in your library with all of your civil war books, fine - that’s fairly reasonable. To fly the Dale Earnhardt Stars and Bars has absolutely NOTHING to do with Southern Pride. Moreover, to fly the flag of another “country” that rose up in arms against the USA shows questionable judgement in my opinion.
That shit didn’t work the first time.
I like Telly’s comments above. Those are pretty funny.
Cutty Says:
April 8th, 2006 at 5:06 am
Mr. Bojangles,
You are an idiot my friend if you still think that calling someone a “racist redneck” is anyway the equivalent of your “gangland thugs and violent monsters”. Redneck is like ghetto some common vernacular term used to stereotype a group of people. The whole “gangland thugs and violent monsters” is some creation only in your obviously racist head that you must think applies.
And of course you can make any group look bad. But that’s what Dateline and programs like that have been doing for decades. Whether its been pedophiles, or welfare mothers, or tax cheats, they take an issue and try to find out the “inside story” on it. Face it, there is a reason they’ve been stereotyped as racists. Does it mean that everyone there is one? Of course, no. But if you were say looking to find some racist white people, I’m guessing that a Nascar fan with his kids outfited in his and hers “Stars and Bars” shirts would be a good place to start.
the mighty mjd Says:
April 8th, 2006 at 12:21 pm
Someday, I will learn to just not post about anything that has to do with race.
nineub Says:
April 10th, 2006 at 3:18 pm
“When the rebel flags are gone from the parking lot, then maybe you can bitch about being branded racist.”
You obviously have no idea…..Im tired of people labeling the Confederate Flag as something racist. My god!!! It has nothing do do with racism. Ill just let you know right now. In the back of my truck on race day will be 3 flags flying. 3 flag, Confederate flag, and a Nascar Nextel Cup Series flag. I dont care what anyone says about it. Label me what you will……as long as I know what I am I dont care what you think.