Confederate flag-flying derby car irks DuPage fans

For at least the second time in recent years, symbols displayed on a car participating in the DuPage County Fair's demolition derby have sparked the ire of some audience members who found them offensive.

Derek Bonaparte, 34, of Aurora, said he and his girlfriend were enjoying the derby Sunday night until the final heat, when a car entered the arena flying a Confederate flag out one of its windows.

“My girlfriend, who is from New Jersey, had never seen that in person before. She looked at me and said 'Is that what I think it is?'” Bonaparte said Thursday. “I took a good look and told her it was exactly what she thought it was. And we booed that driver loudly.”

On their way out of the event, Bonaparte said he expressed his concerns to fair staff members.

“I grew up in southern Logan County and regularly enjoyed attending the derby as a kid and a young man and I'd never seen that before,” he said. “And I certainly never expected to see it in DuPage County.”

Bonaparte said he was discouraged that the fair would allow such “racist propaganda to be displayed for thousands to see.”

“As soon as he rolled out the gate like that, someone should have seen it, stopped him or disqualified him,” he said. “It's inappropriate to say the least. Why would you allow something like that that is so hurtful to so many people?”

Jim McGuire, manager of the DuPage County Fair Association, could not be reached for comment Thursday.

But Bonaparte's mother, Margaret Hall, who was in the washroom and missed the event that upset her son, said she called McGuire Sunday night to convey their disappointment.

“We had a nice conversation and Mr. McGuire assured me that he understood our concern and he agreed that there's no place at the DuPage County Fair for such a piece of hate speech,” Hall said. “He told me he would work to ban the flag at the derby moving forward.”

Dennis Nelson, owner of Indiana-based International Demolition Derby, however, said the Confederate flag regularly shows up on at least one car “in every derby in every state” and he doesn't understand why people are offended.

“If anyone ever took the time to research that flag, you'd know that it comes with both positive and negative history, it doesn't mean anything completely negative toward anyone,” Nelson said. “And some drivers use it, much like the guys who use a skull and crossbones, because it's a tough symbol. They think it looks tough, looks cool, looks hard.”

Nelson said he “tries hard” to keep profanity off the cars in his events and makes drivers spray paint over any “blatantly disrespectful personal insults.” But, he said, it's hard to know where to draw the line.

“Some guys have Christian psalms on their cars and that might offend our Muslim fans. So do I make a guy take a Christian verse off his car?” Nelson said. “We live in a free country where there are groups who don't like black people. There are groups who don't like white people. Hell, there are groups that don't like Chinese people, but what am I going to do? Where do you just stop and draw the line?”

Nelson had very much the same reaction in 2009 when some fans complained about a 24-year-old driver from Lombard who displayed an iron cross and the words “White Power” in several locations on his car.

“What if it had said 'Hispanic pride?' What if it had said 'female pride?'” Nelson asked in 2009. “Should I complain because I'm a man and I'm offended?”

On Thursday, Nelson said that if fair organizers direct him not to allow such paint jobs, decals or flags in the future, he will do his best to make sure the local drivers cooperate.

“The fair is my boss. If they want me to tell these guys all of our cars have to be one color, that's what we'll try to do,” he said. “If they tell me this is a sensitive area and those things aren't welcome, I'll tell the drivers we've got to tone it down.”