After serving a one-year ban for using an racial epithet in NASCAR, Kyle Larson was awarded the NASCAR Cup Championship. It’s a great story about personal growth and redemption. Not if you’re ESPN’s Ryan McGee, who pounced on the provided opportunity not to praise Larson for growing and overcoming, but rather to further flail away at Larson for his misdeed.
McGee believes that Larson must do something in response to McGee’s triumph.
He could be an educator or a change-maker for those who watch the sport that he so passionately loves. It was not what he had in mind for this gig. This is the burden he’ll always carry because of the nightmare, one of his own ignorant creation. But if he does what he could — what he Should— he might very well make some racing dreams come true for someone who thought their race might keep them out of racing.
McGee’s problem is here. Larson is a minority; he’s half-Japanese. Yesterday I mentioned that Larson’s maternal grandparents were interned in Japan during World War II. Larson went through and emerged from NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program. Is there anything else you would like him to do? McGee doesn’t say. But, by King Richard the 43rd, he’d better do SOMETHING!
You would assume that last year was enough. Larson made direct amends for several people, even fellow drivers. Bubba WallaceHe was. He completed all required training. He worked with and alongside remarkable people such as Anthony Martin at the Philadelphia-based Urban Youth Racing School. Larson has continued putting his time and money into the school even after being reinstated to NASCAR. This is not considered doing anything. McGee.
He would do more harm than good if he chose to not take the road less traveled in the short term. Silence will only help those who view NASCAR stuck in 1968. They see it as a free pass for the driver who used the N-word to describe himself and was awarded the title one year later. Larson should own the car and carry it around as prominently as possible as a sponsor on a car’s hood to prove that things have changed.
McGee, what would Larson say to you? Start every single conversation with, “Hey — remember that time I used a racial slur?” Grab the jack out of the jackman’s hands at every pit stop and beat himself with it? Do you want to nail him to a cross, Larson? If African-Americans working to make a difference in their community are willing to show Larson mercy after showing him the error of his ways, and Larson continues to work with them not because he has to as part of trying to get his suspension from NASCAR lifted but instead because it is in his heart and mind to do so … again, does this not qualify as doing something?
McGee’s screed perfectly illustrates the problem with woke white scolds taking it upon themselves to be the great and terrible distributor of punishment to the transgressors. You are just spitting on the wind. Larson has no obligation to live up to McGee’s dictums. He made amends to those who had offended him, and he worked hard to get rid of whatever it was that led to him saying what he did. As a human being, he also has the potential to be a great driver. It is an achievement to be proud of, and exactly what Anthony Martin did at Phoenix yesterday with his wife. McGee is playing protector for those who don’t need him in the least and whose deeds, not words, have demonstrated the power of forgiveness and growth. This is a moment to savor triumph’s sweet champagne. McGee can have all the vinegar.
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