Mauricia Grant and the Disdainful Sound of One Hand Clapping

By: D.K. Wilson

Mauricia Grant.

I’ll type her name again so you remember it.

Mauricia Grant.

She is why race and sports and racism in sports are the hot-button topics that almost always get pushed to the fore by white-owned mainstream media and its white-owned sports blogosphere mirror image.

The operative word here is ——- almost.

Because of its Internet “reach” when it comes to any “important” sports or sports-related topic, a blog site like AOL Fanhouse is positioned as one of the top five Google search results. Same goes for ESPN.com. Same goes for Deadspin and The Big Lead. Same goes for Yahoo! Sports when they latch onto a subject.

But in this case Google Mauricia Grant and scroll down the page. Oops. You won’t find these sites among the top five. AOL “Black Voices?” That spot where you can find videos of the latest dance? Sure, she’s there - and that’s where she lives in the AOL kingdom.

The Fanhouse? Here’s what a search on their site brings forth. And this is what these folks who love to align themselves with the mainstream have to say about Mauricia Grant:

As I’m sure you’ve seen everywhere — heck, this made front page on nearly every news web site — NASCAR is being sued by a former official claiming discrimination, sexual harassment, and other things. The official, who is black, worked for NASCAR in the Nationwide Series side of things for a couple of years before being terminated in 2007.

In the lawsuit, she claims many things with direct accusations of actions or words said by named series officials while heading to race tracks and while working in the garage and pit area. Nationwide Series director Joe Balash was even named in the documents….

I’d say at this point NASCAR’s reputation has taken a nice blow in the past few days. Of course, that’s the way the American legal system works: the plaintiff makes the first sensational arguments in the media and then the defense is left to defend itself via a public relations statement.

The above is three of the five paragraphs dedicated to Mauricia Grant at AOL Fanhouse. The “writer” had the nerve not to even mention her name until the blurb’s fourth paragraph. And that final sentence, “Of course, that’s the way the American legal system works: the plaintiff makes the first sensational arguments in the media and then the defense is left to defend itself via a public relations statement.” is a doozy.

Who is Mauricia Grant?

Grant, a black woman, became the first black, female inspection official in October 2005 and was fired by NASCAR in October 2007. However, she alleges that the firing was retaliation for her complaining about the way she was treated on the job. Now, she has filed a $225 million lawsuit against NASCAR. The suit details racist and sexist comments, obscene e-mails, and text messages directed explicitly at her. And this on top of the two men who allegedly exposed themselves to Grant. Tim Knox and Bud Moore, the two men in question, have been placed on indefinite administrative paid leave by France, though he says their suspension should not read as an indictment of the men:

The lawsuit contends that at an April 2007 race in Texas, Knox exposed himself in the hospitality suite of their hotel at an officials gathering hosted by Nationwide Series director Joe Balash.

Moore is accused of coming out of his hotel room in Memphis in October 2006 clad only in a towel. The suit says he asked Grant if she wanted to see what was under the towel, opened it, then ducked behind a trash can.

In another incident, Grant claims Moore asked her how it felt to be black. Her suit claims Grant described being black as “a privilege,” and Moore feigned confusion and wondered aloud “how can she be proud of being black?”

Moore also is accused of making lewd sexual advances toward Grant.

For two years, according to Grant, she was harassed endlessly by other officials and by the crews in garages.

Brian France, NASCAR CEO says Grant never filed any complaints, never went through the proper NASCAR channels to report the treatment:

“We would have investigated this two years ago if she had said anything,” he said. “But it just defies the imagination that she would have sat in multiple training sessions, in diversity training, would have gone through performance reviews … It just defies logic that she had all these opportunities and never made a formal complaint.

“She had HR on the phone. She was in direct contact and never mentioned a word. It simply defies any logic. This amount of charges and the severity of them, for her to just casually say ‘I mentioned it to Joe (Balash) and he didn’t do anything about it, so I let it go and never said another word.’ It doesn’t make any sense.”

“I would have sure liked to speak to her two years ago. And she could have spoken to me at any time. I get e-mails from employees all the time. I’m an easy person in our company to get in touch with.”

And, of course, in an effort to shift sentiments about Grant’s lawsuit France adds what he obviously hopes is a publicly damning statement:

“She chose to make this about money and about a lawsuit, and we’ll deal with that.”

Grant’s story, though, is very human, infinitely less corporate, and frankly much more believable than France’s hyper-protective spiel:

Grant has said she followed the chain of command all the way to Balash, but stopped short of telling human resources because she was reprimanded by that department for a separate incident two weeks after lodging her complaint. She said she viewed the reprimand, which included a threat of termination, as retaliation for complaining to Balash.

When France’s quotes are juxtaposed with more words from Grant and those from her immediate supervisors he sounds more like a desperate man attempting to save his corporation from squandering all its efforts to delicately court the black community’s money:

“When I started working at Irwindale Speedway, it was because of my own interest,” Grant said. “I volunteered to work for free at the Dodge Weekly Racing (Series). It was something that I wanted to do. I was a L.A. girl and there was a short track close by — 30 miles from L.A. It had nothing to do with me wanting to help NASCAR diversify its sport.

“Once I was working at Irwindale and I got real great reviews from my bosses, Magic Johnson heard about me because Shav Glick wrote a story about me that appeared in the L.A. Times. Magic read it and invited me to speak on behalf of NASCAR at an event to celebrate John Mack, the former president of the L.A. Urban League.”

When the late Shav Glick of the Times interviewed Irwindale Speedway principals, the reviews of Grant could not have been more admirable.

“Mauricia is a great asset to our officiating crew and to the track in general,” track VP Bob DeFazio told the Times. “Her enthusiasm seems perfectly matched by her ability to learn. We’ve asked the people at the Automotive Training Center to please send us more like her.”

“The best word to describe Mo is sharp,” Director of Racing, Lester Boyer told the Times. “She’s not only one of the hardest-working track officials, she’s the most friendly. Tech inspection is always an us-vs.-them deal, like we’re trying to find something wrong with someone’s race car. In reality, that couldn’t be further from the truth. We just love it when a car sails through the safety and rules compliance inspection. Mo’s smile and the way she does this important job just puts everyone at ease.”

And, as if to throw mud on France’s pile of refutations Grant somehow has faith that her plight was worthwhile and that NASCAR is a place where black people can work and flourish:

Despite her experiences, Grant’s opinion of motorsports in general has not soured. Grant openly encourages other minorities to pursue a career in NASCAR.

“I would tell them to go for it,” Grant said. “It’s an exciting, wonderful sport, minus the troubles and the people I had to deal with and the ignorance that was present in the garage area. Motorsports in general is a fun and exciting career. I would not think twice about doing this all over again because I really enjoyed what I did.

“We have to work together to change the racist culture. Anyone that has an interest in motorsports, they should be allowed to work in that environment without having to deal with racism or sexism. It’s not OK to just say just because of the environment you can’t work there. … It’s not an easy place to work, but if this is what you want to do, you have to work hard and fight for it, put your time in and demonstrate that you’re capable of doing the job.”

Does this sound like a woman who ‘chose to make this about money and about a lawsuit’ as France so subversively claims?

Grant’s lawsuit and the circumstances surrounding it are as fascinating as they are important. Before Grant’s lawsuit was filed very, very few people outside of NASCAR’s ranks even knew a black woman acted in the capacity of a NASCAR official.

And for this sport that has such a dedicated following that they are called “NASCAR Nation” the Grant lawsuit has much larger ramifications than a potential payout to the woman from NASCAR’s coffers, well at least whatever insurance company they use to protect them from losing their asses when they are on the losing end of claims like this one.

This is about the very heart of NASCAR.

It is about the essence of its collective socio-political conservatism and all the inherent baggage that reality brings with it.

It is about racism.

It is about misogyny.

It is about men and locker room humor.

It is about human beings and our basic loathing and therefore failure to possess the wherewithal to accept and respect someone different than us.

And beyond all of that it is about a white pathology rarely discussed because self-examination is the most difficult to do of all human responsibilities.

With all that is involved in this singular lawsuit by this woman who is singular within her sport, the constant din of press coverage of Mauricia Grant’s lawsuit is strangely - and at the same time, not so strangely - absent.

But this is what has been covered:

ESPN.com’s LZ Granderson once wrote that the people in and around NASCAR should not be called “rednecks” and that the word was akin to a racial slur.

Oh really.

I wonder what he thinks now? Probably that the few should not be lumped in with the many. But, then again, when Granderson criticized the false phenomenon that is Kimbo Slice, he said Slice’s persona reflected poorly on all black people. You cannot have it all ways, but that certainly is the message.

One perceived negative persona is a reflection of the whole —– when that whole is black. But when it’s NASCAR - white people - it’s just a few bad apples; some “rogue” racist and misogynist agents within the sport. Right?

Right?!

But the press mainstream press and the mainstream sports Internet gadflies will tell you that the treatment of the Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens is the same, that both have been equally castigated. Bob Costas did so in his town hall meeting on sports and the media.

When Kimberly Bell was found to be Barry Bonds’ girlfriend she was everywhere. She quickly became his “mistress.” She appeared on FOX News with Geraldo Rivera. She was the cornerstone of a book. Her words were used as proof that Bonds used steroids.

People like Jeff Pearlman wrote that he had to explain to his daughter about cheating through Barry Bonds. Well, Jeff, have you explained the concept of statutory rape through Roger Clemens? Are you telling your daughter about misogyny and racism through the NASCAR men who Grant says exposed themselves and made racist remarks to her constantly for two years?

Where are those commentaries about Clemens, Jeff?

And what of Isiah Thomas and the sexual discrimination lawsuit filed against him? The national media led by the New York press kept Zeke in the news like he was —— Eliot Spitzer. Except Thomas’ media run was longer and much more contentious than that of the dalliances of a high-ranking government official.

And while the case can surely be made that the coverage of Thomas’ misogynist and misanthropic behavior silently co-signed by his boss, James Dolan, was warranted, it in no way should be in the press’ crosshairs more than incidents that speak to the culture of an entire sports as popular as that of NASCAR.

When Sean Taylor was murdered black columnists acted like the racists they so abhor and jumped to the fore in castigating Taylor and his alleged lifestyle while the Washington Redskins safety lie dying in a Miami hospital. When he died they continued to write about another waste of a young black man; “hip-hop” culture was to blame cried Jason Whitlock; Taylor’s refusal to remove himself from the dangerous urban club lifestyle and some ephemeral payback for an unknown past nefarious deed got him ultimately killed lied Michael Wilbon. These “leading” black journalists created their own bash Taylor bandwagon and urged everyone to hop on; they were not going to be caught pants down defending another incorrigible black athlete.

Instead they got caught pants down acting like their white peers for whom it is their perceived privilege to publicly flog black men and women who participate in the athletic arena. Others wrote nothing at all.

When this sportswriter and, oddly, white sportswriters told a different story of Taylor, his background, his demeanor, and his murder, we were brushed aside in an effort to sweep Taylor into the same trash pile occupied by Michael Vick. When it turned out that their words were wholly inaccurate, those leading the anti-Taylor charge sought only to defend themselves - and never apologized. The silent ones finally wrote, and many credited their white peers for maintaining perspective in a situation given to knee-jerk reactions.

Now we have Mauricia Grant.

And we largely have silence.

Sure, we have Jason Whitlock on FOX Sports trying to be ahead of the curve in the hope of setting the table for all conversation dealing with Grant with yet another hopelessly myopic commentary that speaks more of some tortured inner demons dealing with his skin color and his perception of black women than it does anything real about the events:

Damn! If you’re looking for confirmation of NASCAR stereotypes, you can pretty much find them all in Grant’s $225-million lawsuit. According to Grant, her white male co-workers repeatedly flashed their weenies, dropped the N-word, asked to see her breasts, talked sympathetically about the KKK and called her a stupid, nappy-headed ho. And when none of those tried and true seduction techniques worked, “Mo” Grant says they resorted to spreading rumors that she was a “Ho-Mo.”

I mean this in the most non-offensive, non-gender-specific, Rick James way, Mauricia Grant is not a Ho-Mo, she’s a soon-to-be “Rich Bitch.”…

In all, I counted at least 20 allegations in her lawsuit that were racist, reprehensible and totally unprofessional. Her lawyers also listed perhaps another 20 allegations that seemed bogus and overly sensitive. Claims that NASCAR officials didn’t come to her aid when a group of race fans shouted “Look at the black official” or complaining that her co-workers said “Mo looks hot today” weaken the seriousness of her legitimate charges.

But that’s nitpicking. I guess her lawyers wanted to overwhelm the court with volume. They don’t need it. There’s more than enough there to charge NASCAR with gross negligence and indifference without pointing out that chassis supervisor Alan Shepard asked Mauricia to purchase his mistress gifts.

Before reading her actual lawsuit, I was suspicious of her allegations and motive. I had no doubt that Grant experienced an unprofessional work environment. I don’t believe there is such a thing as a professional work environment. And I say that realizing that in my younger days I occasionally contributed to a lack of professionalism. I’ve never worked in an environment where women couldn’t complain of some sort of aggressive or subtle sexual harassment. Inappropriate sexual relationships on the job are the norm more than an abnormality. And I’ve heard enough white, black, Mexican and Asian stereotype jokes to perform a Chris Rock standup routine.

I expected Grant’s lawsuit to be filled with stuff I’d seen before, stuff you see on every job.

But this was different. She might have felt more comfortable working as a barmaid at a stripclub. I’ve heard they have the good sense to throw you out of gentlemen’s clubs if you pull out your six iron or five wood. (Now, if you unveil an eight iron, they’ll hand you a Chippendales application.)

NASCAR is in serious trouble here. Unless it has some awfully good dirt on Mauricia Grant, the organization should angle for a quick settlement, fire most of the clowns who worked with Grant and get Isiah Thomas and Sean Salisbury to host a diversity seminar.

The grotesquely sophomoric tenor - attempt at pith - of Whitlock’s piece only acts to cheapen the seriousness by which the Grant lawsuit should be viewed. But that’s what happens when you cannot separate “real talk” for real tackiness.

Beyond Whitlock’s seemly fare, there is not much in the way of commentary on Grant. Unless you count the ravings of a madman from Motorsport.com who completely downplays Grant’s claims to the point where she is no more than an affirmative action negress who needs to have thicker skin:

While it would be incorrect to say Grant got her NASCAR job solely as a result of its Drive for Diversity program, it would likewise be incorrect in saying her skin color likely didn’t play any role whatsoever in moving her to NASCAR’s “short list,” inasmuch as Ms. Grant is of African descent (but so, too, are Moroccans and Algerians, etc., of the African continent, but for some odd reason they’re not considered of “African” descent in the U.S. But that’s another deal, entirely).

If anyone at this point is expecting to see this writer herein unilaterally attempt adjudication of this matter, they’re not going to read such.

This writer will recommend, however, everyone “toughen up” a tad.

And so, in the face of such writing, we have a mainstream press that is completely silent on the issue of Mauricia Grant while the blog poster at AOL Fanhouse, Whitlock and the gentleman from Motorsport.com have their day and hold sway. But relative to Grant, big time Internet sports blogs like The Big Lead offer only a link to a London(!) newspaper with the sardonic line:

“NASCAR Officials named in $225 million lawsuit. That’s why you wait until she asks.”

Wonderful.

That other bastion of mainstream-acting hyperbole and achingly white mainstream sports perspective, Deadspin, wrote this of the matter. And who is their voice of authority? Whitlock.

Beautiful.

But that is the way of sports today, eh? Chad Johnson’s antics and Brandon Marshall quotes about wiping his ass are all the rage - and much more sports-worthy than the topic of Grant and NASCAR.

Meantime what do those black writers who are so effusive when it comes to following others’ leads or critiquing black athletes have to say about Mauricia Grant’s lawsuit?

Nothing.

Oh, I forgot, they’re all too busy covering the NBA Finals to be bothered.

Great.

Wonderful. Beautiful. Nothing. Great.

That sums up the lack of coverage and the feeling about the lack of coverage of Mauricia Grant and her lawsuit against NASCAR.

Now, what again was the sound of one hand clapping?

————————–

The following are but a few of the many incidents listed in Mauricia Grant’s lawsuit:

72. On or about November 30, 2006, White Official Shaun Johnson sent Plaintiff MAURICIA GRANT an email entitled “International Disadvantaged People’s Day” which read:

Today is International Disadvantaged People’s Day.
Please send an encouraging message to a retarded friend,
just as I’ve Done. (sic)
I don’t care if you lick windows, interfere with farm animals, vote
Liberal or occasionally shit yourself…….. You hang in there
Sunshine, You’re fucking special…

86. On or about November 21, 2007, Plaintiff MAURICIA GRANT received a text message from White Official David Duke which read:

I love all Yall mofos
i am that nigga
HAHAHA
Holla
PIMPALICIOUS

103. On or about the week of March 18, 2006, while they were working the Atlanta Motor Speedway race in Georgia, Official Mike Wilford held in front of Plaintiff MAURICIA GRANT some loose diamonds and rubies he was carrying, and suggested that the jewels were hers if she would agree to be his mistress. Plaintiff was disgusted. Officials Mike Weddle and Rick Noble were present, and laughed hysterically.

112. On or about the week of April 14, 2007 while in Texas working at the Texas Motor Speedway, NASCAR Busch Series Assistant Director Mike Dolan approached Plaintiff MAURICIA GRANT while he was eating an ice cream sandwich. Mr. Dolan commenced licking the cream in a lewd manner, insinuating that the chocolate cake was a vagina and he was performing oral sex. While doing this, Mr. Dolan stared at Plaintiff and raised his eyebrows suggestively. Plaintiff MAURICIA GRANT was repulsed.

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D.K. Wilson is a freelance sports writer. He is better known on the internet as "DWil," and writes for Sports On My Mind.

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2 Comments

  1. You want dirt on Grant, here it is and it’s true… I’m also female and a minoroty who works in the NASCAR industry and I know Moe Grant very well.

    Mauricia Grant is a liar and her allegations are sensationalized beyond reality and truth. How do I know, you ask? Because I worked around her for 3 seasons, every weekend. What she failed to detail in her suit is why she was really fired… she went into town the night before the Memphis race and got drunk. She showed up at the race track the next morning and was hung over. After the officials’ morning meeting, she snuck off to a NASCAR truck and went to sleep. After several hours of searching for her and repeated, unanswered calls to her on the radio, she was found sleeping in the truck and taken to the NASCAR hauler where she was fired and escorted out of the track. Before being escorted from the track, she did manange to get on the radio and announce to the NASCAR officials that Joe Balash was firing her and that NASCAR could go F*&K itself. I witnessed many incidents where Moe was the outright instigator of crude jokes, lewd and suggestive language and obsene gestures. In her suit she claimed to wear baggy clothes so as not to encourage the male officials to hit on her and that’s an outright lie. She was known for wearing tight hip hugging jeans with her thong sticking out and a tank top or halter top with no bra. Her language was foul and she was routinely talked to about toning her expletives down. Her allegations, while detailed are false, twisted to her advantage, and blown out of proportion; I recall one specific incident where she said if NASCAR ever fired her, she would sue those motherf*&^%ers for every dime she could get. Here’s to NASCAR standing up to a race baiting, bitter woman who lost her job because she got drunk.

    Comment by J.D on July 2, 2008

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