We stand together, the team today took the knee which was just amazing to see that together we can learn and be open minded of what’s going on in the world. Thank you to everyone in my team and to you #TeamLH, I appreciate all of your support and your positive messages. Tweet by Lewis Hamilton @LewisHamilton H.A.M til the day I die!! #TeamLHAll around the World!! lewishamilton.com

No basketball, no baseball, no football, so, if you are looking for a sport to watch, there is Formula One whose racing season started a couple of weeks ago. Sure, the stands are empty and everybody is wearing a mask because of Covid-19 but the racing is pretty much the same.

Still, while the racing is pretty much the same, the world has changed and F1 is trying to change with it. Many of these changes seem like changes at the peripheries but they are changes. There are a lot of “End Racism” signs and large rainbows of both the safety car and the medical car but the biggest changes have come at Mercedes Benz. Their number one driver is Lewis Hamilton who, with six world championships, is considered the greatest driver of his generation, and while his dad was Black and his mom White, he identifies as Black. That has had a significant influence on his team which has even painted their cars black with a prominent end racism tag. Mercedes’ livery has been silver since 1934 and they even call their race cars the silver arrows so this is a big deal.

For as long as I can recall, Hamilton’s helmet has had the Maya Angelou quote, And still I rise – and as a large tattoo on his back – now his helmet, which he has changed from predominantly yellow and red to black, says Still We Rise and Black Lives Matter with a raised fist. Last weekend, Hamilton won the Styrian Grand Prix and raised his fist à la Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the Mexico Olympics.

As an aside, this brings up the question of whether all these minor changes – and they are minor compared to real, structural, changes – will make a difference. Does changing the Master Bedroom to the principal’ bedroom change anything? Does changing the color of a racecar change anything? To answer that the long way around, does President Trump’s racist rhetoric change anything? I think the answer is Yes! Part of the change President Trump’s rhetoric brings is that he has energized people who were already haters and part of it is that he has modeled racism as being acceptable, even presidential. What F1 and Mercedes have done is say We oppose racism and you should too. End aside.