Last Friday, Bernie Ecclestone made some controversial statements. The old F1 chief had said in an interview with CNN that black people would be more racist than white people. This immediately caused a lot of controversy and both Formula 1 and six-time world champion Lewis Hamilton publicly rejected the statements. Now 89-year-old Ecclestone has responded to the criticism.
Ecclestone says that he is absolutely not racist towards black people, the former F1 boss would simply have been misunderstood. “I’m not anti black people,” he said in an interview with The Mail on Sunday. ”Just the opposite. I have always been very ahead. Lewis’s father even wanted to work with me as a business partner. He had some nice rowing machines. I wouldn’t even have considered that if I were anti-black. If the project had been good, I would have done it. ”
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“I’ve met a lot of white people in my life that I don’t like,” Ecclestone continues. “But I’ve never met a black person I didn’t like. I have been robbed a number of times, also by three black men. I ended up in the hospital, but even after that, I never had anything against someone black. I don’t see Lewis Hamilton as black or anything, he’s just Lewis to me. For example, if a black or white person doesn’t get a job, you have to wonder why. Is it because of their skin color? Or simply because they were not suitable for work? That’s what I said. ”
Ecclestone does state that he is absolutely not behind the Black Lives Matter movement, in which Hamilton himself participated. “People are going to those marches organized by quasi-Marxists who want to bring down the whole police. What a disaster it would be for the country. If you asked most of them exactly what they wanted, they probably wouldn’t know. It is not my fault that I am white or slightly smaller than most men. They called Titch at school. I realized I had to do something about it. Black people have to take care of themselves, ” said Ecclestone.
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