The Jingoism 500 - NY Times Op-Ed

[Peter Olivola]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/17/op...gewanted=print


February 17, 2007
Op-Ed Contributor

The Jingoism 500

By MICHAEL YAKI

San Francisco

TOMORROW, ordinary citizens will be bracing themselves against the howling sound of Japanese engines throttling up and bearing down on their beloved American heroes. No, it’s not a squadron of dive-bombing Zeroes re-enacting Pearl Harbor. It’s the Daytona 500, the kickoff to the Nascar season, and for the first time in Nascar’s history Dodge, Chevy and Ford will be joined by ... Toyota.
Japan’s biggest car company, which is poised to overtake General Motors as the largest car manufacturer in the world, has entered the hallowed tracks and pit rows of that most American of race circuits, the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. But to hear some Nascar fans talk, when those engines fire up it will be Dec. 7, 1941, all over again.

The war metaphors have been brought to the fore by Jack Roush, a prominent racing team owner. Mr. Roush has said that “we’re going to war” and that he’s preparing himself “for siege.” He has accused Toyota of having bought its way in, of raising the costs of owning a team and generally spoiling the pot. Other Nascar columnists, pundits and fans, even a Web site dedicated to being “against racing Toyotas,” have chimed in against the auto maker’s entry into Nascar.

Nationalism and pride in one’s country can be admirable traits. Nationalism, however, is the razor’s edge in the American psyche, where just a push turns it into xenophobia. Nascar, like so many professional sports before it, may soon be faced with a situation where deliberate ignorance of simmering prejudice is not an option.

I am an American of blended Asian ancestry, including Japanese, and a certain insult — a word as odious as its counterpart for African-Americans — sets me off. That word has been flying fast and furious in many Nascar-related forums and chat rooms. It offends me so much I cannot even abbreviate it here. One person wrote that “we don’t need any foreign nameplate in Nascar.” Others have taken up the “if you love them so much go live in Japan” theme and, curiously, wondered that if the Iraqis built a car would drivers of Japanese cars “become fans of the terrorists?”

The drivers hired by Toyota have been subject to the same opprobrium. Dale Jarrett, whom Nascar has named one of the 50 greatest drivers in its history, has been called a sell-out. Michael Waltrip, a Daytona winner, has been invited to “leave America” with his Japanese truck. (His recent woes at Daytona, including accusations that his team was cheating during qualifying, have only increased the vitriol.) Nor have the up-and-comers Brian Vickers and Jeremy Mayfield been spared. In blogs and on fan sites all have been characterized as traitors for driving “rice burners.”

Although team owners like Joe Gibbs and Rick Hendrick have welcomed the competition from Toyota, Nascar itself has said little during the rants and grumblings, apparently hoping it will all die down. That is unacceptable. There are, of course, Asian-American Nascar fans, and several of Nascar’s races are held in California, the state with the highest population of Asian-Americans.

Nascar’s goal has always been to ensure competition from inside the cockpit, not on the outside. It is all about devising a race where one variable — human skill at 200 miles an hour — is prized above all. When I watch the races (I am a fan; my mother-in-law is an uber-fan), I am fascinated by the men and the occasional woman maneuvering around banked tracks at speeds I cannot fathom with the touch of scrimshaw masters. I am not thinking of a Chevy Monte Carlo or a Dodge Charger or a Ford Fusion — or a Toyota Camry. I am watching Jeff, Junior, Tony, Mark and all those others with the courage, talent and sheer guts it takes to withstand, much less win, a 500-mile race when my legs cramp up after a leisurely two-hour drive.

Nascar’s roots in the South’s “good ol’ boy” mentality are a part of its lore and charm that cannot be denied. Movies like “The Dukes of Hazzard” and “Talladega Nights” both spoof and glorify its origins. Its partnership with the American auto industry is also a part of this history, born in the myth that you can drive the same “stock” car that Richard Petty drove to victory. But Nascar has become a global superbrand, still undeniably American yet ubiquitous enough for the world’s best — not just auto manufacturers, but racers like Juan Montoya, the Colombian who has dominated Formula 1 — to want to test its drivers and its superspeedways.

More than 20 years ago, this country feared that Japan would take over American industry. It didn’t happen. But today the Big Three are still on the ropes and, combined with Chrysler’s recent layoffs, a Toyota victory in one of Nascar’s events could reawaken latent fears of Japanese domination. We cannot forget that in 1982 a young Chinese-American, Vincent Chin, was killed in Detroit because two autoworkers assumed he was Japanese. Apparently there remain embers just hot enough to re-ignite the flame of racism.

You can be pro-American, and you can declare that Americans should buy American cars. But doing so involves a degree of hypocrisy. Today an “American” car could have been assembled in Mexico, or had most of its parts manufactured offshore. And Dodge, part of the Chrysler brand, is owned by Daimler of Germany. Yet I don’t hear anyone disparaging the patriotism of the racers driving Dodges. It’s another indication that the opposition to Toyota is rooted not in patriotic pride, but racism.

Along with millions of others, I will watch the Daytona 500 tomorrow. There would be nice symmetry if the Great American Race also meant that in the arena of race relations, Nascar, like all major professional sports, were to take measures to reject the appearance and insinuation of intolerance and prejudice in its ranks.

Michael Yaki is a member of the United States Commission on Civil Rights.

[slorydn1]

Good read Peter....and most unfortunate that it is true

[SOD]

they build Camry's in kentucky , dont they?

[Sparky1329]

Good piece.

[SOD]

"time we had American built cars in the 500"

[Bob Riebe]

The only thing Japanese about the Toyota funded car, is the money.

It was designed and built in the US by some of the top NASCAR and sprint car engine builders.

It only annoys me a bit, because unlike the Big three engines, which are still based on arcitecture that actually powered prod. cars twenty five years ago, this engine is from nothing except what the builders learned fromt he Big Three.

Now if it was Nisaan, they used to actually produced a push-rod V-8....
Bob

[call_me_andrew]

they build Camry's in kentucky , dont they?

They ASSEMBLE Camry's in Kentucky, but the parts are made in Japan.

They ASSEMBLE Fusions in Mexico, but the parts are made in the U.S.

[Bob Riebe]

They ASSEMBLE Camry's in Kentucky, but the parts are made in Japan.

They ASSEMBLE Fusions in Mexico, but the parts are made in the U.S.

Bravo, Bravo!

[SOD]

They ASSEMBLE Camry's in Kentucky, but the parts are made in Japan.

They ASSEMBLE Fusions in Mexico, but the parts are made in the U.S.

I stand corrected.

Anyone who is really concerned about it, should write to Bill France c/o NASCAr Corp, Daytoner beech, Fl xxxxxx

last time i checked, NASCAr is a private bidnizz, and has the freedom to conduct that bidnizz whatever way thay choose. if you don't like it, don't waste your tim watching it.

[RCR29FAN]

They ASSEMBLE Fusions in Mexico, but the parts are made in the U.S.

I beg to differ, some of the parts are made in Mexico and some in Canada and some in the US and Some in Japan. You can't buy a 100% US made car period that I know of. According to DW on the race today Toyota employs 7,000 workers in Kentucky and many more Americans in support roles, sales etc. Toyota is just about as American as you can get without traveling back in time a couple of decades when US Cars were actually all US made.

My '97 Chevy S-10 Pickup I have to have two sets of wrenches to work on the dang thing. SAE and metric and the wiring harness was made in Mexico.