Black Mountain, NC - A spokesperson for the nation's leading Southern heritage advocacy group said Tuesday that the National Association of Minority Race Fans would be "ill advised" to try to make NASCAR fans put away their Confederate flags at Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend.
The NAMRF, a protest group of about 50 members, claims NASCAR provides "unsafe environments" for women and minorities, although the only issue the group has so far raised is the traditional presence at NASCAR events of Confederate flags. NAMRF has called the flags "distasteful and disgusting" and "a sign of hatred". The group says it will approach fans at the Atlanta race and "ask" them to swap their Confederate flags for American or NASCAR flags. A NAMRF spokesman has said, "Since NASCAR won't take the flags down, we'll do it for them."
But Roger McCredie, Executive Director of the SLRC, called this plan "confrontational, ill advised and unnecessary" and added, "I know a lot of NASCAR fans. Like the rest of us, they see that flag as a symbol of
their Southern-ness; they aren't making a political statement with it. All the same, I don't exactly see them rending their garments and throwing their battle flags in the dirt because some grandstanding protestor tells them to."
McCredie called the NAMRF "just the latest bunch of professional malcontents looking to cash in on the ethnic cleansing of Southern culture."
Noting that NASCAR has issued no official response to NAMRF's protests, he added, "being ignored drives folks like this nuts. They respond with slander, accusations and threats. It sort of makes you wonder who's actually doing all this alleged hating, doesn't it?"
The Southern Legal Resource Center is a civil rights law firm that advocates on behalf of individuals whose constitutional and civil rights have been violated in connection with expressing pride in Southern heritage. It presently is representing plaintiffs in civil rights actions against DuPont, Westinghouse, the Federal Aeronautics Administration and school boards in several states. In 2002 the SLRC scored a precedent-setting judicial victory in the case of Castorina v. Madison County Schools, in which a Federal Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a
lower court's upholding of a Kentucky school system's ban on Confederate flag clothing.
For additional information, contact:
Roger McCredie
Southern Legal Resource Center
(828) 669-5189
exec@slrc-csa.org
We appreciate your continued support for the Southern Legal Resource Center. Please visit our website at www.slrc-csa.org. You can make a donation online with PayPal.
The Southern legal Resource Center is a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization and contributions to it are fully tax deductible. Credit card and PayPal donations may be made at our website by clicking on "How You Can Help." Checks payable to the Southern Legal Resource Center should be mailed to P.O. Box 1235, Black Mountain, NC 28711.
"Thumbs Up for Dixie" stickers are available for SLRC and local heritage fundraising projects. Contact Allison Schaum for details at slrc@crystalink.com or (864) 476-0656.
