Who is Mauricia Grant? NASCAR Knows

[leftchick]

by Dave Zirin | July 11, 2008 - 2:09pm


http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/15796


For the last decade, NASCAR has tried to shed its legacy as a sport indelibly linked to the confederate flag. Motorsports bosses have understood that if their sport were ever to go global, burning rubber couldn't be associated with burning crosses. However, despite efforts to buff their image, it's still a sport where racism pulses below the surface and sexism in the form of bikini clad NASCAR eye-candy is proudly paraded around the speedway, as much a part of the scenery as the stars and bars. NASCAR has for years been in danger of being crushed by this contradiction. They're attempting to reach an upscale international audience while clinging to the worst kind of provincial sewage.

NASCAR execs' preoccupation with having their cake and eating it too has long been a recipe for disaster. And now we have the ingredient that could ruin the entire corporate feast: Mauricia Grant. In 2005, Grant became the first black, female inspection official in the sport's history. Two years later she was fired. Now Grant has filed a $225 million harassment lawsuit against NASCAR alleging "racial and sexual discrimination, sexual harassment and wrongful termination."

"I loved it. It was a great, exciting, adrenaline-filled job where I worked with fast cars and the best drivers in the world," Grant told The Associated Press. "But there was an ongoing daily pattern . It was the nature of the people I worked with, the people who ran it, it trickled down from the top."

The lawsuit details twenty-three specific incidents of sexual harassment and thirty-four specific incidents of alleged racial and gender discrimination over a two-year span. It is a fairly mind numbing recitation of verbal abuse that goes well beyond anyone's notion of political correctness.

In addition to the verbal barrage, Grant has accused two NASCAR officials, Tim Knox and Bud Moore, of exposing themselvesto her as well. They are now on "indefinite administrative paid leave" although NASCAR suspiciously says it has nothing to do with the lawsuit. (If you believe that, you must think Jesse Helms is in heaven.)

[muntrv]

1. Wendell Scott must be spinning in his grave over this.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendell_Scott

[Tutonic]

6. He's doing laps.

[MikeNearMcChord]

2. I hope she wins big, NASCAR had its chance

Jesus, perhaps they should have looked at what happened to the New York Knicks.

[Subdivisions]

3. What? Still with your blanket characterization of NASCAR fans? Why

do you hate NASCAR fans?

[leftchick]

5. from the horse's mouth

no blankets needed....

<snip>

Grant claims she was called "Nappy Headed Mo" and "Queen Sheba." She had a coworker who liked to talk casually about the Ku Klux Klan. Another white official named, oddly enough, David Duke, sent her a text message that read, "I love all ya'll mofos i am that nigga. HAHAHAHolla. PIMPALICIOUS."

So far, NASCAR's response to Grant's allegations has been to go into attack mode. Chairman Brian France said, "The disappointing thing is she makes a lot of claims, none of them reported, The fact that it went on as she stated, for many months, but never bothered to tell anyone at management what was going on -- which is what our policy says -- is very disappointing." Grant claims she did tell others but that she was told to let it go because her tormenters were "former military guys" with a rough sense of humor.

Mike Wilford, who is named in the suit and has since left NASCAR, told The Associated Press that Grant was in on the offensive "jokes" the whole time. "Graphic and lewd jokes? She participated in them. She laughed, she would never say it was inappropriate," Wilford claims. "She asked to be called the only two names she was ever called. She called herself Mo Money all the time."

Needless to say, this scandal could destroy NASCAR, or at the very least, put it in permanent marketing purgatory. Ironically the person perhaps best-equipped to save NASCAR from itself is Mauricia Grant.



But then I doubt you have actually read the link.

[Subdivisions]

10. You are asserting that ALL NASCAR fans are deviant brutes and you

are wrong! And, I am insulted.

[leftchick]

11. uh, HELLOOOO

this is about they way she was treated by NASCAR, NOT the fans.

:eyes:

[spanone]

8. it's not about the fans, it's about management

[asdjrocky]

4. Good for her.

In my opinion, any "sport" that uses that much fuel, and puts that much crap in the air, not to mention the cavalcade of idiots in their RV's and SUV's that follow it, is way beyond ridicules. And yes I understand the history and the culture, and frankly, I don't give a shit. I went to the stock car races when I was a kid, and I raced motocross, and that was when I was a kid. Until they start running the cars or solar it's just wrong and backward.

[Lint Head]

7. Nascar originated with moonshiners in NC, SC, GA and TN.

See 'Thunder Road'. That culture is imbued throughout with racism and the 'Old Plantation' attitude.
I was born there. I do not live there because of the blatant racism. Most Nascar fan's are not racists.
The corporate culture that controls the stock car racing franchise is bigoted and racist.:dem:

[ColbertWatcher]

9. That's one every other week. Damn. n/t