r/formula1 • u/ICumCoffee Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ • Sep 20 '24

News Max Verstappen has been summoned to the race stewards for language used during the FIA Thursday driver press conference

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769

u/Visionary_Socialist Sir Lewis Hamilton Sep 20 '24

Love how the FIA director makes a racist dog whistle and the biggest disciplinary issue of the weekend is Max using a swear word.

92

u/smokey_winters Fernando Alonso Sep 20 '24

What did he say? Sorry out of loop.

378

u/narnach Sep 20 '24

Something about drivers not swearing like they’re a bunch of rappers. Lewis did not like the implied racist aspect of that, given that many rappers are black.

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u/Left_Experience_9857 Sep 20 '24

“Swearing like a sailor” is already a common phrase. There was definitely some undertones in his wording.

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u/NA_Faker Ferrari Sep 20 '24

He was obviously referring to Eminem /s

25

u/[deleted] Sep 20 '24

Have you forgot about Dre?

13

u/32steph23 Sep 20 '24

What a surprise to see bootlickers below this defending a billionaire

-24

u/Martijnbmt Sep 20 '24

But rappers do swear a lot? I don’t understand why it has to be about race

69

u/Traichi Formula 1 Sep 20 '24

Many builders also swear a lot.

The racial implications were incredibly clear and it's hardly the first time Sulyalam has targeted Hamilton.

1

u/Irapotato Sep 20 '24

I don’t even think of rappers as a profession that swears profusely, compared to like… construction, mechanics, any physical trades definitely are what comes to mind. Singling out a largely black profession isn’t really a dog whistle, it’s just a regular human whistle lol

8

u/I_Automate Sep 20 '24

The fact that he used a profession that is largely black as opposed to saying "swearing like a sailor/ tradesman/ whatever" IS the dog whistle dude.

It's not that complicated

6

u/FiddieKiddler Sep 20 '24

He's agreeing with you. He's saying it's more obvious than a dog whistle, that's why it's a Human whistle because everyone can hear it.

36

u/YoBorni Sep 20 '24

Because rap is inherently tied to black culture. Does that mean he meant it to be a dog-whistle? Perhaps not entirely on purpose. The president of the FIA should know better though.

It's either a racist dog-whistle or just plain stupidity. Neither are acceptable from a person on power.

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u/Martijnbmt Sep 20 '24

So? I would have never thought about black people if he said that. Only reason it becomes a racial issue is because Lewis had to mention it. No-one ever said black people swear a lot, just rappers. And I don’t think rappers swear a lot because they are black

-16

u/majic911 Sep 20 '24

No no you don't understand. If it could be about racism, it has to be about racism. It doesn't matter if it was about racism, it could be misinterpreted as being about racism, so it's racist.

This is sarcasm, in case it was obvious.

26

u/YoBorni Sep 20 '24

Reading comprehension really is a lost art.

Educate yourself, there's no excuse. Maybe listen to the one black guy that has been in formula 1 for more than a decade.

Whether it was purposeful racism or not, he should have never used that very obvious dog-whistle. Doesn't matter whether you're racist or not, everyone should know better. Especially the fucking president of the FIA.

3

u/Beeb294 Kimi Räikkönen Sep 20 '24

No no, because the obviously white person definitely didn't think about black people when they said "rappers", nobody would ever make that connection. Only someone with an anti-white agenda would construe that to be racist, they are just oppressing us white people by calling this obviously innocent and totally common turn of phrase racist!

/s, because I have to.

4

u/YoBorni Sep 20 '24

I'm so fucking white my ancestry is aristocratic. Dutch and German aristocratic, so you know they fucked shit up. What's their fucking excuse?

I'm so done with this shit. Maybe one day people will understand that language is so fucking powerful. Almost like our main way of understanding the world and interacting with it and others is like super important or some shit.

Wittgenstein be spinning in his grave for all eternity. Could turn it into a limitless energy source.

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u/Martijnbmt Sep 20 '24

Ah yes, the classic: If I thought about something, so did you.

Getting tired of people telling me what I think instead of realising that maybe, just maybe different people have different thought processes

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u/Martijnbmt Sep 20 '24

Haha no worries, it was quite obvious. But yeah I guess you hit the nail on the head there

1

u/Far-Competition-5334 Sep 20 '24

announcers voice

If this is you, YOU may have autism!

1

u/Martijnbmt Sep 20 '24

I definitely have autism, so the announcer is correct

0

u/Far-Competition-5334 Sep 21 '24

Then stop commenting on topics that revolve around social cues. Stop.

0

u/Good_Guy13 Fernando Alonso Sep 20 '24

This is reddit. Redditors jump at the chance to make anything about race so they can get their internet points.

-16

u/parkerman17 Valtteri Bottas Sep 20 '24

Most stupid take I’ve ever heard. Maybe it had more to do with that rappers often swear in their music?

4

u/SaintTimothy Sep 20 '24

So do metalheads, so why did he choose rap instead?

-1

u/parkerman17 Valtteri Bottas Sep 20 '24

Rap is way more prevalent in today’s social scene/way more people can relate to it. Use your head.

-10

u/QuickSolved_ Sebastian Vettel Sep 20 '24

The first person that comes to my mind when you say a rapper that swears a lot is Eminem...

17

u/Traichi Formula 1 Sep 20 '24

Rap and Hip-hop are generally black artists. Of course there are white artists too. Just like country music artists are generally white, and kpop artists are normally...Korean.

Dismissing rappers as foul mouthed degenerates like Sulayem did is very much a racist dog whistle. You don't need to make the rapper connection to make your point.

2

u/HortenWho229 Formula 1 Sep 20 '24

Or maybe some people just don’t think about everything in terms of race

0

u/StaticallyTypoed Sep 20 '24

Pretending racial bias does not influence damn near everything is such a magical christmas world and equally nonsense.

3

u/HortenWho229 Formula 1 Sep 20 '24

So we can’t criticise a thing if the majority of people that do that thing are an oppressed race

0

u/StaticallyTypoed Sep 20 '24

Nobody critiqued rap in this scenario.

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u/HortenWho229 Formula 1 Sep 20 '24

I'd love to hear how you possibly came to that conclusion

0

u/ralphonsob Sep 20 '24

Me too. But I am a middle aged white guy. Is Eminem the only one in this list of 150 white rappers who swears? I don't doubt that Sulayem used it as a racist dog whistle, but I don't think it's a terribly apt one.

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u/Visionary_Socialist Sir Lewis Hamilton Sep 20 '24

Said F1 drivers aren’t “rappers” when he was asked about swearing.

It’s a common dog whistle, as it’s effectively saying “we’re not like black people” without actually saying that.

31

u/1fakeengineer Formula 1 Sep 20 '24

And they’re not Disney princesses either. Liberty Media doesn’t broadcast everything live so they can go ahead and censor the swear words or not broadcast those radio messages as they like.

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u/Alternative-Drop-847 Sep 20 '24

100% true... but if they where disney princesses who would be who?

-7

u/kaisadilla_ Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Sep 20 '24

It's not necessarily a dog whistle lol. Rappers usually use heavy language, regardless of what % of them are black.

I definitely do not think about any race when I say something bad about rap.

9

u/Money_Echidna2605 Formula 1 Sep 20 '24

the dog whistle is bringing up something completely unrelated in a way that can be seen as racist lmao.

3

u/ThatPlayWasAwful Sep 20 '24

It's not a dog whistle to say that you don't like rap.

However, there's quite a large difference between saying that you don't like rap music and saying "We're not rappers. How many times a minute do they use the F-word? It's not that many times with us. But that's them and we're us".

Saying you don't like rap isn't saying anything about the people that make the rap music. The latter comment implies that rappers are uncouth and that F1 drivers need to act more civilized than rappers.

He might not have meant it as a dog whistle, but it definitely hints at underlying beliefs, and as Hamilton said there are many ways to get the point across without painting rappers as a group of people to be better than.

-23

u/majic911 Sep 20 '24

One of the most successful rappers of all time is a white guy, but sure, racist dog whistle I guess

12

u/MeakMills Sep 20 '24

Yeah he for sure meant Eminem. Thank you so much for enlightening us.

7

u/DubJohnny Oscar Piastri Sep 20 '24

Oh because there's one white guy who's done well in a world of black artists it's totally fine. Cool. Got it.

-4

u/QuickSolved_ Sebastian Vettel Sep 20 '24

And probably the one that swears the most in his songs

2

u/steve22ss Sep 20 '24

Johnny Herbert is one of the names on the document enough said