NASCAR Bans Confederate Flag at All Races and Events

NASCAR recently announced (via Twitter) that flying the Confederate flag at any of the races or events is now officially banned. This rule came days after Bubba Wallace, the only African American NASCAR racer, asked NASCAR to ban Confederate flags at the races. 

During the race last night at Martinsville Speedway, Bubba Wallace raced in a ‘Black Lives Matter' car. The car will feature ‘#BlackLivesMatter’ on the driver side, with the words “Compassion, Love, Understanding” written on the back, with a picture of a black hand holding a white hand with “Compassion, Love, Understanding” underneath on the hood of his car. 

Banning the Confederate flag is significant as it has been a fixture at races for a long time. NASCAR fans have flown the flag with the Dale Earnhardt No. 3 in the center and many other iterations of the controversial flag.

NASCAR's decision has caused controversy as racer and owner, Ray Ciccarelli, has come out to say he won’t continue after the season ends. 

With NASCAR, who has one black athlete, banning and showing it’s support for the protests that are happening; it paints the question- why aren’t leagues with a majority of black athletes like the NBA and NFL changing some of their player protest rules to show their support to all their athletes who are joining the protests that are going on.