Upgrade to enjoy this feature!
Vital MX fantasy is free to play, but Premium users receive great benefits. Premium benefits include:
- View and download rider stats
- Pick trends
- Create a private league
- And more!
Only $10 for all 2026 SX, MX, and SMX series.
The Shop
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
Free shipping: VITALMX
I said I would like more information. Who did it? Do we know it was racially motivated, or are we assuming things. If someone spit on BJ because of his ethnicity - big time wrong. If they spit on him because he was the closest target - also wrong. Some hayseed chewing tobacco? Farmer blow?
Would like more information.
Bad spelling - predictable.
It's no different than football, but worse because these guys are individuals an normally pretty young.
I can bet James has been called a nigger several times--well, yelled from the stands.
Last night, I heard someone booing James behind me. When I turned around to see who it was... Nothing but a row of poker faces, staring straight ahead. LOL!
Pit Row
Get off the fence
James Stewart’s other battle
When I looked at the photograph, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
The picture, which ran on a website called vitalmx.com after the Southwick, Massachusetts, round of the motocross championship in June, showed fans—and I use that term loosely—hanging over the fences and making obscene gestures toward James Stewart.
OK, that’s stupid. But what was worse was that they were apparently shouting and displaying a sign containing racial slurs (I think we can guess which one) toward an extremely talented and—oh yeah—black racer. And they were doing all that just a dozen feet from James’ mother, Sonya, his brother, Malcolm, and a friend.
I couldn’t help thinking, “Is this 2007?”
There was a time in this country when being African-American determined which military unit a soldier was qualified to serve in. There was a time when the color of a player’s skin could keep him out of Major League Baseball, no matter how talented he was. There was even a time back in the 1940s when James Stewart could not have gotten a license to be a motorcycle racer in America.
But I’m not exactly young, and all that changed even before I was born. I thought we had moved on. Then I saw that photo from Southwick, and I had to think again.
Maybe, I told myself, this was just an isolated incident—just one small group of people who apparently weren’t paying attention over the past 60 years.
So I called Sonya Stewart and learned that while the Southwick incident was particularly ugly, it’s unfortunately not unique. She indicated that there are a few racetracks every year where the Stewart family finds people who can’t seem to put their personal prejudice aside to appreciate a superb athlete at the height of his abilities.
“My guys (James Sr., James Jr. and Malcolm) never say anything about it,” she noted. “And normally, I wouldn’t either. But this really got to me.”
She said that this is one reason why James doesn’t look forward to the outdoor Motocross season. Simply put, he has to worry that the fans are a lot closer to the racetrack than they are in a Supercross stadium.
I guess every sport has to confront this issue sometime. Major League Baseball eliminated its color barrier with the signing of Jackie Robinson in 1947, and the NFL and NBA soon followed. But when it comes to individual sports, like tennis, golf and, yes, motorcycle racing, the process takes longer, probably because no one notices until an exceptional talent draws attention to the issue.
Tennis had Arthur Ashe in the late ’60s. Golf, of course, has Tiger Woods. Neither was the first black athlete in the sport’s history—just the first to rise to a level of stardom that couldn’t be ignored.
James Stewart is that athlete in motorcycle racing—not because he wanted to be, but because he came along at that time in the history of our sport. That’s a lot of weight for one motocross racer to carry on his shoulders. And at just 21 years old, Stewart has handled it extremely well.
Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for those who believe the motocross track is a place to display their personal prejudices.
“I thought people just want to see a race,” Sonya Stewart told me. Apparently, for some fans, that’s not the case. And their behavior is an issue we all need to face, because of the impression it gives people about the motorcycle community.
Sure, you expect fans at any sporting event to be passionate. You expect them to cheer for their heroes, and maybe cheer against the other guy, too. Even though he’s now honored as the Greatest of all Time, Ricky Carmichael heard plenty of boos when he was taking over Jeremy McGrath’s spot at the top of the motocross world.
But there’s a pretty clear line between being a passionate fan and being a bigot. And it’s a line that was trampled in Southwick.
Of course, the worst punishment these hate-filled fans can face is to be them.
Think about it. Years from now, the rest of us are going to savor the memories of watching heroes of the sport, guys like McGrath and Carmichael. And we’ll recall watching James Stewart come up through the ranks to join them.
Meanwhile, the people in the picture from Southwick will remember the day they shouted obscenities and racial slurs at a guy who went on to become a motocross legend.
Imagine trying to explain that to your grandchildren.
Bill Wood is AMA director of communications.
© 2007, American Motorcyclist Association
P
P
Big James >spitter dude.
Oh yeah, big james also watched his son overcome a lot of adversity to have a very successful evening on the sports big stage.
Post a reply to: Seriously Spitting?