Terry Frei of the Denver Post fired for tweet about Japanese Indy 500 winner

Are we really going to argue that a guy expressing his discomfort with the racial makeup of someone who won a sporting event isn't racist?

Why was he "uncomfortable?" Because he thinks Japanese people are totally equal to Americans and one particular Japanese person was totally worthy of winning the Indy 500?

 

Yeah, see, I reject the bolded premise.

 

I don't see how you can. He specifically said he was very uncomfortable with a Japanese driver winning. And, he then explained why pretty clearly.

 

"Japanese" is not a race. It is a nationality.

 

"Japanese" is pretty much a race ... the Yamato, the overwhelmingly dominant group of Japan, are considered to be their own ethnic group.

 

Semantics.

He was "very uncomfortable" with him because he's different. He's different due to an ancestry he shares with other different people.

Racist.

 

I don't agree that the evidence supports this at all, though Alma and a few others have also said that the difference is semantic, so I'm the one on the island here, admittedly.

He was "very uncomfortable" because the country he represents fought against the United States in World War II, killing many thousands of the soldiers and sailors whose deaths who honor on that precise day.

(Well, the next day, but still.)

 

Possibly, but possibly not. You're assuming that if Sato had been, say, Thai, that Frei would have felt similarly. You don't -- you can't -- know that.

 

To clarify: It's possible that the Tweet was racially motivated, at least subconsciously. As someone has pointed out, British drivers have won. And Mario Andretti was born and raised in Italy.

But I don't think that the Tweet was necessarily racist.

 

Agreed. There's enough wiggle room in this instance that "not racist" is a reasonable possibility. Although "not deplorable" ... there's not much room for that.

 

Well, he doesn't have to feel very uncomfortable with ALL Asians to feel very uncomfortable with Japanese people. That doesn't mean anything.

I honestly don't think he would've said anything had someone of any other race/nationality won. That doesn't mean he's any more comfortable with a Japanese winner.

 

One thing that people may not grasp if you haven't been to the race is how intensely Memorial Day hangs over the whole proceeding. I'm not a crier, at all. But I break down every year during "Taps." The whole pre-race ceremony is mostly very well-done, and it's not a big U.S.A. pep rally that a lot of us have grown cynical about, but the spirit of Memorial Day and what it means is very, very heavy in the air.

It makes sense that someone who is stirred by WWII, like Frei apparently is, would be emotional at the speedway.