It is in consideration to become one of the undeniable truths of life: perception is reality. Well, this has been true for a long time. I believe it has wielded more influence over the national discussion regarding almost any societal or political topic in recent years. Pick your issue, legislation and regulations have been implemented based upon perception rather than reality often doing more harm than good.

The latest case in point revolves around the alleged racist incident that took place in the garage of NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace. Earlier this week, NASCAR CEO Jim France announced that a member of Bubba's race crew had found a rope fashioned into a hangman's noose in Bubba's garage at Talladega Speedway. France called it a Despicable hate crime and promised that with the FBI's help, NASCAR would find the person responsible and deal with them swiftly and harshly. In case you did not know, Bubba Wallace is NASCAR's lone African-American driver.

Because NASCAR has video surveillance systems that are 1000 times better than any bank in America, The FBI was able to quickly conclude that the offending symbol was a garage door rope pull that had been hanging in that manner Since October 2019, the last time NASCAR raced at Talladega. Garage assignments are made the week before the race based upon a driver's standing in the points battle so no one could have known that garage #4 would be assigned to Bubba Wallace. The FBI along with NASCAR concluded that this was not a hate crime and that Wallace was not the target of a racist symbol.

Between the time that NASCAR made the initial announcement and the FBI concluded their investigation, there was swift and vocal condemnation of not only the individual that might be responsible for placing this symbol in Wallace's garage but for southern white people in general. Those who have made racism their avocation used this incident to prove that racism is systemic in our country and white people cannot stand black people.

Once the facts were made clear, very little of that message changed. Will Cain of ESPN was quick to condemn many of his fellow media industry brethren for jumping to conclusions without waiting for all of the facts. A number of ESPN personalities including Bomani Jones, Jason Fitz, and Mike Golic, Jr. took Will to task saying that he was tone deaf and wrong. Their perception is that while this specific incident was more likely than not an innocent mistake, the reality is that racism exists and we will not know for sure that this was not a racist incident until we find the person that tied the noose in the rope pull and determine their motivation.

This attitude or approach to discussing racism in America is not isolated to this one incident. We have seen a number of situations, such as Tawana Brawley or more recently Jussie Smollett, in which it was claimed racists attacked innocent black people simply because of the color of their skin. However, the allegations were proved to be false. Those who promulgated the falsehoods are rarely asked or forced to apologize and admit wrong. Rather they hide behind the curtain of racism being systemic in America and we should give them a pass simply because racist attacks occur.

The problem with this approach is that it takes away from the validity of incidents that are truly racist, giving many people a reason to question how widespread racism might be and thus avoiding real conversations about the problem. No matter how open minded you are about listening to others experiences or opinions, when those who claim there is a problem repeatedly put forth falsehoods to support their argument, it is human nature to doubt the validity or extent of the problem. Thus we never really have a true conversation about the problem, its causes, and its solutions.

A true conversation that is not convoluted by false claims, blanket allegations, or demands to accept allegations and 'solutions', would open the eyes and minds of everyone involved. It would also make finding true solutions much more probable. But as long as many people involved continue to claim that perception is reality, we will never have an honest conversation and we will never have a solution.