Impressions

When I still lived in England I had a reasonable working knowledge of a range of sports. I had a good idea of what was going on, in a broad sense, in the worlds of cricket, boxing, motor-racing, rugby, et al. Most blokes of my age were the same. We grew up watching sport on the telly and reading the sports pages and we sort of soaked it in. That ended when I came to this Far Place. Coverage of what I'd previously thought of as main stream sport was spotty and that didn't bother me all that much. After all there's plenty to be interested about in the world, so I can't say I missed the exposure I'd previously enjoyed.

So although I'd heard of Lewis Hamilton and was aware of the fact he was very good at what he did, that was almost the sum of my knowledge. Except for a vague sense, picked up from nowhere in particular, that he wasn't seen as a terribly attractive character: I suppose I thought of him as a fairly superficial young man. I noticed that when he first won the World Championship in F1 (is that what they call it?) the nation didn't exactly fall over with rejoicing, something I (unconsciously, I suppose) put down to a defect in his character.

But here's the thing. In more recent times I've seen the guy not just win races but also speak up on various issues and he's obviously articulate, intelligent, concerned for others and morally brave - qualities which I think might be objectively acknowledged even by those who don't necessarily approve of some of his stances in relation to matters of a socio-political colour. Which makes me puzzled as to how this aspect of him as a person - an aspect I can't imagine suddenly appearing out of nowhere - wasn't something I had any real awareness of when he first came to public notice. I mean, he's an impressive individual beyond his deeply impressive skills as a sportsman - and that's a lot of impressiveness to take on board.

Perhaps the answer to how I missed all this lies partly in my own obtuseness, but I suspect it lies more squarely in images conjured by media content to mediate certain stereotypes related to race. And it disturbs me that to some not small degree I fell for them.