Not Even Trying to Hide It
Clint Lacy, who claims his Across Our Confederation blog is “your voice in the Sons of Confederate Veterans,” has figured out the underlying cause of that fiery crash at the Daytona 500 the other night: letting non-white (or maybe just non-Southron) drivers into the sport. No, seriously:
Well Mr. [Brian] France [CEO and Chairman of NASCAR]; Did you get this “diversity thing” right? Did you achieve what you wanted to for this sport?
Because if your Drive to Diversity program was rolled out so that Latin-Americans could roll into dryer trucks filled to the brim with jet fuel you can give yourself a pat on the back.
I saw that wreck, and I have to say that it never entered my mind that it was the inevitable and foreseeable outcome of letting a Columbian, Juan Pablo Montoya, get behind the wheel. Shows you how clueless I am.
It’s Lacy’s conceit that his blog speaks for the rank-and-file membership of the SCV. It doesn’t, and he doesn’t, but his claim that it does makes it an SCV problem nonetheless. They ought to stomp publicly disavow him for attaching their name to foolishness like this, but I’m not holding my breath.
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Update: Lacy has responded to this post, claiming that I have issued a call “for a non-for-profit fraternal organization to bring violence to my doorstep.” OK, fine, I’ll rephrase that. Done.
Of course, instead of defending his own words, or clarifying their meaning, Lacy doubles-down, saying that “as far as SCV members go, I would wager that most descendants of Confederate veterans probably aren’t too happy with Brian France’s vision for Nascar, a sport with its roots planted firmly in the South.”
He then goes on to explain that the real problem here is my lack of appreciation for my Confederate heritage. Because if I had a better appreciation for that, I’d understand why Latin Americans shouldn’t be driving in NASCAR. Or something. 😉
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Image: Pierre Ducharme, Reuters, Star News Services
Dead Confederates, A Civil War Era Blog 
Yes, I guess if someone pointed out to Lacy that Montoya has two career wins and 20 top-five finishes over the past five seasons, he’d argue that France and NASCAR rigged it so that Montoya would do well. What a knucklehead.
Clint Lacy is an American and has the right to speak his mind on the subject. And I have the right to point out a racist when I see one. Perhaps Mr. Lacy can form his own Racing Organization made up of only Southerners and we could watch it on “Redneck Thee’tr” where it belongs.
I have no idea what lies in Clint Lacy’s heart. But he’s not doing anyone any favors by postings this sort of stuff — not himself, not the sport, and not Southron cause, however he defines it.
And I’m dead serious about the need for the SCV to publicly and explicitly distance themselves from clowns like him who, despite his assertions to the contrary, continues to claim to know what “most descendants of Confederate veterans” believe about the subject.
There’s also a coincidence of timing. You may recall that the “General Lee” car from the Dukes of Hazzard was recently barred from a NASCAR event in Phoenix, due to the CBF painted on its roof. This caused quite a bit of consternation among Confederate heritage types, and Lacy responded by reprinting a piece by Paul Kersey (“Thought For The Daytona 500: Will Diversity Kill NASCAR?”) that made the argument — explicitly — that NASCAR is a distinctly a Southern, white man’s sport, and setting off alarms about the creeping threat “diversity” presents to it:
That was just a few days ago. Then comes the big wreck at Daytona, when a driver with a very non-Anglo-Saxon name loses control of his car and BOOM!
Well, you get the idea. One of the things that, to me, is so very troublesome about the Confederate heritage movement is that, on the one hand, it’s determined to depict the 1860s Confederacy as a happy, tolerant and multicultural place when it comes to race and ethnicity — black Confederates, etc. — it’s also home to a virulent modern, political/cultural backlash against any efforts at diversity, immigration or multiculturalism in the present-day South. Go read some of the xenophiobic rhetoric at the League of the South.
Mr. Lacy must not be familiar with NASCAR if he’s surprised at a catastropic crash.
And you Andy, feel free to keep thinking that you are the ONLY one qualified to ponder, comment and judge the Confederate Veteran and his descendants. Read some xenophobic rhetoric at the League of the South? Ok, and you can continue to absorb and regurgitate the likings of the Civil Warriors, the SPLC, the Anit-Neoconfederate and any and all anti-American feel bad about your heritage organization that exists. As for me, I do no seek your approval for my viewpoints.
I’ve never claimed to speak for anyone but myself, Mr. Lacy.
Thanks for stopping by.
And when one of the “good ole boys” (make that read – white southern) causes a monstrous crash, what are we to think then ? Maybe he was “passing” ! 😉
Mr. Lacy’s choice of heritage violations to take on seems rather odd. If the car from the Dukes of Hazzard is a symbol of anything substantial, then I’m Elvis Presley. (And I’m no Elvis Presley.)
–ML