Driver Mackena Bell, Courtesy BET
CHANGING LANES
Friendly Rating: Early elementary and up.
Safety Rating: Some car crashes, but so far no bleeped language.
Quality Rating: Great, if you’re a racing addict. Good, otherwise.
Documentary/competition series premieres on BET tonight at 8 p.m.
It would appear that even NASCAR, the stock car racing association best known for its Good Ol’ Boys attitude, is feeling the winds of change. The organization is sponsoring the “Drive for Diversity” program, along with racing company Revolution Racing to bring along 11 teen and young adult drivers who happen to be Black, Latino and women. The series covers the competition as those 11 kids are whittled down to four who will join the Revolution team as drivers.
Part doc, part elimination show, the show does open up onto a world that is pretty hard for kids who aren’t male and White. In fact, in the opening episode, one of the White coaches talks about how he saw the effects of racism first hand – and turned out to be more upset by it than the kid it was directed at. Not surprising. The kid expected it, knew how to handle it and wasn’t phased. But it was a life-changer for the coach. Yay.
But for a program that’s supposedly working to break through the stereotypes, I find it amazing that of the four women who made the final cut, three are blondes with Anglo names. And the one brunette has an Italian name, although she could be Latina or mixed-race. And she wasn’t featured very often in the opening episode, either.
Ah well, there’s still work to do. Worse yet, there really isn’t that much more to the show than cars and competition – which is great if you love car racing. Not so interesting if you don’t.
