NASCAR team races ‘Back the Blue’ car to show support for police
A NASCAR team raced a car with a “Blue Lives Matter” flag on its hood and the phrase “Back the Blue” on each side in a pair of Xfinity Series races over the weekend.
That came just a few days after the only black driver in NASCAR’S top-flight Cup Series, Bubba Wallace, drove a “Black Lives Matter” car. Earlier that Wednesday, NASCAR banned all displays of the Confederate flag at its events and properties, following Wallace’s call for just such a measure.
On Saturday, Mike Harmon Racing unveiled what it described as a “Thin Blue Line” paint scheme for a Chevrolet it was entering in Xfinity Series races at Florida’s Homestead-miami Speedway that day and on Sunday. The traditional Thin Blue Line design, featuring a blue stripe against a black background, was shown on each side of the car, with Back the Blue over each rear wheel.
“Mike Harmon Racing supports our LEO’S (law enforcement officers) and First Responders, we THANK YOU for your service, sacrifice and dedication,” the team said in a tweet.
The driver of that car, Kyle Weatherman, said in a tweet Saturday, “A lot going on in the world right now and I wanted to express that most first responders are good people. My uncle is a firefighter and he would do anything to help save lives.”
“Blue Lives Matter” became a rallying cry for some law enforcement officers and supporters after the Black Lives Matter movement, with its emphasis on raising awareness of police brutality, originated in 2013.
The flag, which incorporated the Thin Blue Line design into a version of the Stars and Stripes, was reportedly created in 2014 by a 19-year-old University of Michigan student. That person, Andrew Jacob, said in 2018 to Harper’s that the “black above (the blue stripe) represents citizens, and the black below represents criminals.”
Supporters of the Blue Lives Matter phrase and the flag, which is also called the Thin Blue Line flag, claim that they honour police officers, as well as other first responders such as firefighters and emergency medical personnel, for performing difficult, dangerous and often thankless work.
Some critics assert that, unlike with too many black people, deaths of police officers are almost always thoroughly investigated and receive great attention. Evidence that the Blue Lives Matter flag has become enmeshed in farright culture emerged during the violent 2017 demonstrations in Charlottesville, Va., when it was spotted next to Confederate flags and other symbols being toted by white supremacists and neo-nazis.
A prominent manufacturer of the flag, Thin Blue Line USA, said at the time, “We reject, in the strongest possible terms, any association of our flag with racism, hatred, and bigotry. … The thin blue line flag stands for the sacrifice law enforcement officers of this nation make each day.”
The flag was at the centre of a dispute last year between Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, R, and Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich, D, after the latter banned it from county buildings, including police stations. “The flag provides a symbol of support to some but it is a symbol of dismissiveness to others,” Elrich said then, adding, “To have the racial tensions heightened over something like (the flag), I did not think it would be productive.”
Blue Lives Matter demonstrations have sprung up amid the nationwide Black Lives Matter” marches following the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, at the hands of a white Minneapolis police officer. While Saturday’s Xfinity Series race was gearing up near Miami, a Back the Blue rally unfolded in Tampa, Fla.
The two races over the weekend saw the team’s Back the Blue car finish 33rd out of 37 competitors and then, on Sunday, 35th out of 38. Weatherman was unable to complete either race, bowing out on Sunday because of fire.
The Washington Post