Rittenhouse would have got life if he was Black, says Nascar racer Bubba Wallace

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Kyle Rittenhouse would have been given a life sentence or shot dead if he had been Black, Nascar driver Bubba Wallace said on Friday.

“Let the boy be black and it would’ve been life… hell he would’ve had his life taken before the bulls*** trial,” Wallace wrote in a tweet after Rittenhouse was found not guilty of the homicide of Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber on Friday.

“Sad,” he added.

Wallace, 28, is the only full-time African-American driver currently racing in Nascar, and often uses his platform to speak out about social justice issues.

Last summer, as the country was convulsed by a racial reckoning in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by a police officer, Wallace wore a shirt with the words “I can’t breathe” and adopted the Black Lives Matter emblem on his racing car during races.

Follow the latest Kyle Rittenhouse trial news here

Wallace’s comments provoked a mixed response on social media, with some fans saying they would no longer support his Nascar career.

“If a white Nascar driver makes a controversial tweet like this he’d have to do sensitivity training and lose his ride,” one person wrote.

Others said the case had “nothing to do with race”.

Last month, Wallace  secured a historic first victory in the prestigious Yellawood 500 at the Talladega Superspeedway.

Rittenhouse, 18, collapsed and wept in the courtroom as the jury returned verdicts of not guilty on all five charges he was facing of homicide, attempted homicide and reckless endangerment.