Formula One: The outrage over Lewis Hamilton’s video is a scam
By Asher Fair
There has been outrage over a recent video posted by Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton. But that outrage is a money-hunting scam.
Four-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton posted a video on Instagram that sparked a worldwide outrage, mostly over Twitter, simply because he was joking around with his four-year-old nephew Kaiden and stated that “boys don’t wear princess dresses!”
However, when you look at a lot of the backlash that Hamilton has received over this video, it is evident that the people harassing him for it are partaking in nothing more than a money-hunting scam.
The video started out with Hamilton addressing his followers. Here is what he said, according to the BBC:
"“I’m so sad right now. Look at my nephew.”"
The four-time champion then filmed the four-year-old while he was wearing a princess dress and holding a toy magic wand. Hamilton joked with the boy and asked him the following questions, according to the BBC:
"“Why are you wearing a princess dress? Is this what you got for Christmas? Why did you ask for a princess dress for Christmas? Boys don’t wear princess dresses!”"
First of all, Hamilton needing to apologize to Twitter trolls who feel the need attach sexuality to a situation involving a four-year-old playing and goofing off with his uncle is ridiculous. If anyone should be apologizing, they should be apologizing, not Hamilton.
Instead, these trolls are now trying to get a hold of Hamilton’s $150 million paycheck. It has been demanded by the Twitter trolls that Hamilton, who signed a 3-year, $150 million contract through the 2018 Formula One season back in 2015, donate some of his money to “put his money where his mouth is.”
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That’s right. The same people who wanted him to apologize and made it clear by harassing him are now saying that apologizing is not enough; now the Twitter trolls are demanding he donate money to show that he is serious. Give me a break.
This raises the simple question: are people really outraged over what Hamilton said, or are they seeking to guilt him into owning a lighter wallet?
Now, I’ll admit not everybody is doing this. There are some people who are legitimately upset about his comments. While I do not agree with those people, they’re not trying to gain anything by it, so I have no reason not to respect their opinions.
But before I get accused of being political, let’s look at the facts here. Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines political as “of or relating to government, a government, or the conduct of government OR of, relating to, or concerned with the making as distinguished from the administration of governmental policy.”
Nothing about this situation is political. Sure, society likes to treat it as such, but let’s be real about this. Nothing about this situation is truly political. Period. The bottom line is that Hamilton was harassed for no good reason whatsoever, and now people are demanding that he be the one to pay up for it. Again, ridiculous, and the whole thing could not scream “scam” louder than it already does.
Even if it were political, anyone who knows the background information on this situation, which you can read up on here and here, would agree that Hamilton had no need to apologize. It was a knee-jerk reaction (like it usually is) on the part of the Twitter trolls to go off on him for simply goofing around with his four-year-old nephew.
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Lewis Hamilton did nothing wrong, and he had no need to apologize. It would be ridiculous if he ended up caving to the demands of people who want him to give them his money — these demands are rooted in hatred and jealousy. It’s disgraceful that any athlete, in this case a race car driver since that’s what Beyond the Flag reports on, can be harassed over an innocent remark to a four-year old family member. Political motives mean nothing here whether you want to believe it or not.