Many observers wondered why British race car star Lewis Hamilton was so emotionally invested in America’s Black Lives Matter Movement during the apex of the uprising during the summer of 2020. The aftermath of Hamilton’s victory at the British Grand Prix provides the reason why.
The eight-time winner was bombarded by a slew of racist social media posts after he won following a controversial crash on Sunday, July 18, 2021.
With an estimated 140K spectators taking in the race, Hamilton reportedly hit the wheel of fellow racer, Max Verstappen, sending him careening into a serious crash that sent him to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, CNN reports.
Despite the fact that Lewis wished Verstappen a speedy recovery in a post for his 23 million Instagram followers to read, the crash unleashed the darkest impulses of the human spirit through a racial diatribe aimed at Hamilton.
Twitter and Facebook vowed to fish out the racists and implement procedures to flush the invectives out.
“In addition to our work to remove comments and accounts that repeatedly break our rules, there are safety features available, including Comment Filters and Message Controls, which can mean no one has to see this type of abuse,” a Facebook company spokesperson told CNN Sport.
Hamilton’s Mercedes team, Formula 1, and the FIA (the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, which translates into English to mean “International Automobile Federation”) produced a statement denouncing the race-tinged tirade against Hamilton.
“These people have no place in our sport and we urge that those responsible should be held accountable for their actions,” it read. “Formula 1, the FIA, the drivers and the teams are working to build a more diverse and inclusive sport, and such unacceptable instances of online abuse must be highlighted and eliminated.”
