By STEVE DOUGLAS AP Sports Writer – Prevented from doing his day job by the coronavirus outbreak, Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton is standing out during the pandemic through his passionate campaigning against racial injustice.
Hamilton was just as vocal last week following the death of George Floyd, a black man who died after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck even after he pleaded for air while lying handcuffed on the ground.
Hamilton said he has “felt so much anger sadness and disbelief in what my eyes have seen,” adding that “those of us who are black, brown or in between see it everyday and should not have to feel as though we were born guilty, don’t belong, or fear for our lives based on the colour of our skin.”
On Instagram, Hamilton criticized others in Formula One for failing to speak up on the issue of racism, saying they were “staying silent” in the “midst of injustice.”
Hamilton is the only black driver to have raced in F1 and has previously spoken out about the adversity he has overcome to make it to the top of a sport he perceives being for the white and privileged.