Sadly, Racism is a fact of life. I myself often am at the receiving end of taunts for being Indian and quite often on objecting most people say that it wasnt racism but general Indian bashing (which people love to do).

Anyway lets get back to the topic, the man of the moment Lewis Hamilton was allegedly racially abused by Spanish formula one fans in Spain. Fans dressed up in black costumes and blackened their faces. They also shouted swear words at Hamilton. While i would have expected something like this to happen anyway, the no-action by the police at the race stands is pretty surprising, isnt Europe supposed to have tough laws in place and tougher enforcement. There is no place for people who disrespect other’s feelings in a blatant way in our society.

What happened at Spain is indeed unfortunate, but i also wonder if its being blown out of proportion. I mean Lewis is a seasoned sportsperson and taunts and gestures from the crowd shouldnt mean much to him. If someone in the crowd pokes fun at his ancestors he should let it pass. I mean try playing cricket in India, or for that matter any other sport. I was playing volleyball with a few of my friends today and i can assure you compared to the taunts that were shared there, what Lewis got was sweet music. Competitive sports do have a lot of sledging. Hopefully Lewis wont take what happened in Spain to his heart.

Also please note I am not encouraging racism in anyway, but my point is that the sport is bigger than this and we should move on and put this incident behind us. The British media has this habit of publishing Lewis Hamilton like he is the Pope. I was stopping myself from writing about this issue but everyday i see a new story about the race issue. One day its the British complaining, the next day we have interviews from drivers condemning the taunts, the third day someone urges the FIA to take action, the fourth day Spanish circuits receive a warning.

Anyway these were my 2 cents about the incident… , hopefully such an event would not be repeated in F1 and this particular incident would be forgotten.