Lewis Hamilton has revealed that he was racist attacked outside a Newcastle corner shop as a child.
The seven-time F1 champion and the only black driver to compete in the series full-time has been through a lot throughout his career at the highest levels of motorsport, including being mocked by three-time champion Nelson. Picket early this year.
Former McLaren team principal Ron Dennis has said Hamilton and his father Anthony met at the Motorsport Awards when the future champion was just eight years old and competing in junior karting competitions. With his families before him, the team and drivers were finally reunited for Hamilton’s first F1 season in 2007 and his first title the following year.
For the first time, Hamilton details the horrific physical attacks he suffered during a visit to his mother and stepfather in Newcastle-on-Tyne when he was around 12 years old in the mid-to-late 1990s.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Hamilton described how adults and children approached him, knocked him to the ground, repeatedly kicked him and yelled “Go back to your country” as he walked into the store alone, he explained.
“I still remember how scary it was,” he said. “I really, really didn’t understand, ‘Are they talking to me? I have this fear and anger because I want them back.
“I never talked to my parents about it,” Hamilton explained. “I didn’t tell my mother about it.” I didn’t think she would understand. And my dad was probably too scared to tell her because he didn’t want to think she was crazy. He didn’t want him to think that he couldn’t defend me. I remember many times crying alone in my room.
Hamilton has campaigned more and more on diversity issues in recent years. He is a prominent supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement and the Hamilton Commission was created to provide more opportunities for young Black people in STEM subjects and motorsports.
The former McLaren driver has been working with the Mercedes team to increase employee diversity, and for the 2020 season he will unveil a pre-race t-shirt with the slogan “Arrest the cop who killed Breonna Taylor”. A black woman was shot to death in her apartment by a white police officer six times.
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Source: Metro
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