Trevor Noah and Bubba Wallace Discuss Noose Incident: “People Compared Me to Jussie Smollett”

The FBI may have concluded that the rope hanging in Bubba Wallace‘s Talladega garage was not a noose, but the NASCAR driver still has some concerns about the incident. On Wednesday night, Wallace sat down with The Daily Show‘s Trevor Noah to discuss the situation, as well as the backlash he’s received from some NASCAR fans following the release of the FBI report. “People compared me to Jussie Smollett,” he said of fans claiming that the noose incident is a hoax. “I knew this would flip to the negative side.”

For the past few weeks, Wallace has been open about his experience as NASCAR’s only Black driver, but last night, he and Noah — late night’s only Black host — had a particularly emotional conversation. Wallace said that after the ups and downs of the past few days, he’s now “mentally and physically drained,” but he knows he must keep fighting for equality.

“A lot of people may not understand the world that you’re in and what your journey has been from the time you came out and said, ‘We need to get rid of the Confederate flag,'” said Noah. “I knew it would be a whirlwind of emotions, of comments, of hate, of positive light, as well,” replied Wallace. “To step away from Bubba Wallace the athlete, and to step up as Bubba Wallace the human, for the first time … I’m letting that guard down.”

Wallace explained that he wants NASCAR fans to understand “the bigger picture” of systemic racism and the Black experience in America. “It’s not about racing. It’s about race,” he said, adding that he’s committed to “standing my ground and helping NASCAR paint a new picture for the sport and the next generation to see and lash on to.”

When it comes to the FBI investigation, which concluded that the rope hanging in Wallace’s Talladega garage was a door pull that had been there since October 2019, the driver has some questions. He said his crew “checked each and every garage around us” and found that “not any one had anything like we had” with their garage pull. “Nobody had a knot like we had on our garage pull in the shape of a noose,” said Wallace. “A full, blatant noose.”

Wallace admitted that he “was relieved” that he was not the victim of a hate crime, but lamented that there are still many fans who believe it was “a hoax.” To these fans who have compared him to Empire star Jussie Smollett, who is currently embroiled in a legal battle over an alleged hate crime scheme, Wallace has a message: “I am not a political person at all. I try to avoid that at all costs.”

“I’ve never once pulled the race card,” he continued. “It’s something that I’ve never once tried to bring in. I’ve always tried to bring in the competitive nature.”

But now, things have changed. “I don’t want to see my people go down like that,” Wallace told Noah. “I want to stand up for them, I want to stand up with them arm in arm, hand in hand, to show that I have a voice and I am going to create change in my sport and my community, and I want you guys to be a part of it.”

Watch Bubba Wallace discuss the NASCAR noose incident in the clip above.

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