Lewis Hamilton opens up on childhood racist abuse: ‘Bananas were thrown at me’
Hamilton remains the on🌱ly black driver to have competed in F1 since its inception in 1950.
Throughout his illustrious career, Hamilt𓂃o🍬n has spoken about the discrimination he’s faced, even during his time in F1.
Hamilton’s own experiences has meant he’s set up his own projects, such as the Mission 44 Foundation, a charitable organisation focused on supportiܫng unrepresentative gr♐oups in the United Kingdom.
Speaking on On Purpose with Jay Shetty podcast Hamilton admitted he couldn’t talk to his parents about the bullying he 💦ꦡendured during his childhood.
“I didn’t feel I could go home and talk to my parents,” Hamilton said, “I didn’t wa🉐nt my dad to think I was not strong.
“I was already being bullied at the age of six. I think at the time of that🦂 particular school, I was probably one of three kids of colour, and just bigger and stronger bullying kids were throwing me around a lot of the time.
“And then the constant༺ jabs, things that are either thrown at you like bananas, or people that would use t🃏he n-word just so relaxed. People calling you half-caste and you know, just really not knowing where you fit in.
“That, for me, was difficult. When you then go int🌊o like history class and everything you lear🍸n in history, there are no pictures of people of colour in the history that they were teaching us. So, I was thinking, Oh, well, where are the people that look like me?”
It wasn’t 🌄just the fellow students that Hamilton had a tough time dealing with, with the Mercedes dr𒊎iver talking about the lack of support from the teaching staff.
“Teachers were telling me,꧒ ‘You’re never going to be nothing,’” he added. “I remember being behind the shed, in tears, like, ‘I’m not going to be anything.’ An🍸d believing it for a split second.”
With a sharp eye for 𓆏F1’s controversies and storylines, Connor is the heartbeat of🌠 our unbiased reporting.
