MANSFIELD, Ohio–Update: March 18, 6:01 p.m.– Richland Source confirmed with Grant Milliron, the owner of the raceway track, that he has canceled the agreement for Kevin Ruic to promote events at Mansfield Raceway.
Racially charged posts on his personal Facebook page have placed Kevin Ruic of Avon Lake in a defensive position recently. Ruic leases and promotes Mansfield Raceway, the former Mansfield Motorsports Park.
Social media is an easy place to vent frustration, but Ruic’s comments said in a public forum may not be in the best interest of the business he is launching. His racially charged comments appeared on Facebook and have now been spread via screenshots to news, businesses, and social media outlets.
However, though reports stated that the City of Mansfield withdrew support from the racetrack’s Fourth of July festivities as a result of these comments, Mansfield Mayor Timothy Theaker said this is not the case.
Theaker said the city had never been involved in the planning of the Freedom Fest event at the raceway.
“We didn’t even know anything about it until we saw it on the internet,” said Theaker. The racetrack’s website lists the event as the City of Mansfield Freedom Fest.
He said that city officials, including himself, the law director, and police and fire representatives met with Ruic.
“It’s not affiliated with the city of Mansfield. We don’t have any money, so we can’t partner with you,” he said city officials told Ruic during the meeting.
A follow-up letter was sent Feb. 13 to confirm this, said Theaker. “Just to formalize it, I just sent this letter out,” he said.
The letter states, “This letter serves to inform you the city has determined it will have no affiliation or endorsement of your organization’s event to be held July 4, 2015. This includes any and all advertising or promoting. The city further requests that you not use the phrase, ‘Mansfield Freedom Festival’ in promoting your event, as we do not wish to give the impression that we sponsor or endorse your event. In the alternative, possibly you could call your event ‘Mansfield Motorsports Park Freedom Festival.’
Finally, if you are in need of traffic control and/or security for your event, that must be solely arranged by you and at your cost.”
“This is a privately sponsored event,” said Mansfield Law Director John Spon. “It is not an event sponsored by the City of Mansfield.”
Ruic confirmed the city was never involved in planning the event. “They never had anything to do with it. Never. I never asked them for anything,” he said.
Ruic said he invested $50,000 for the fireworks show, and that he was calling it the City of Mansfield Freedom Fest to help the city out. “I thought it would be sort of a leg up for the city,” he said.
Mansfield resident Doug Miller said he was impressed with the effort put forth at the raceway, at first. But after friending Ruic on Facebook, he discovered another side of the promotor.
“Post after post of just god-awful racist stuff…the most racist, hateful stuff you could think of,” Miller said.
Miller said that he has taken in an African-American teen that is like a son to him.
“I don’t think I could look [him] in the eye if I stood idly by and didn’t say something,” Miller said.
“How could I look at my African-American employees if I didn’t say something?” he asked.
“I’ve gotten a lot of flak over saying something about this, but I think it’s worthwhile to be said,” Miller added.
Ruic said that when he gets upset he does use “pretty rough language.” “But don’t read my Facebook and you won’t get offended by it,” he added.
In response to allegations of racism, Ruic said, “I have absolutely not one racist bone in my body toward black people who are like me – who work, whose children go to school, who cut their lawns, who do all the things that everybody else does. And that is the majority of the African-American community. It’s not the minority. But there are kids who grow up in the ghetto area, carry guns, shoot people, who are all in gangs, and they don’t have a chance to get out of where they’re grown. To them, drugs and crime are cool and they make a lot of money doing it. I can’t stand them.”
When asked if it bothered him that people would consider his comments racist, he said, “They can call them whatever they want. Let me tell you, by the time racing season comes, no one will even remember it. I am good for the community. I’m really not a bad guy.”
Asked if Ruic was concerned that businesses may pull sponsorship of the raceway due to his comments, Ruic replied, “Nobody’s pulling support from the raceway. Like who? Spitzer’s is a major, major sponsor of the raceway and they will be, and they have no intentions of leaving.”
Spitzer Motors could not immediately be reached for comment.
“There were no racist comments,” he continued. “Tell me one thing I said that was racist. Tell me one racist comment that I made.”
Addressing the screenshot that quoted, “monkeys without tails,” Ruic said, “You should read the entire thing. You read that. Make sure read at the bottom, the last line in that comment. The monkeys without tails, and I was talking about what they were doing in Ferguson as they were burning the city to the ground. And they don’t rate me calling them anything better than that. I have no problem with that whatsoever. I hope I defamed them. I hope I made them look like they were what they were. They’re not even human.”
“If people construe that I’m a racist, God bless ‘em,” he said. “I don’t care. It doesn’t affect my business at all.”
Ruic said he had thought his Facebook posts were private. Referring to his efforts to be more cautious, he said, “Somebody, they were talking about there’s a school somewhere where they have some of those sand people out there with the camels, they’re going to college here. They’re not even citizens, you understand. They told the college they didn’t want the movie, the sniper, shown because it was racist against them.”
“And since I’m trying to change my ways,” he continued, “as a response to that, I wrote, ‘Shut up, Kevin, don’t say a word. You’re in enough trouble already.’”
He said some of the people were upset by a joke he had made up about entering a Muslim store and asking for a bomber jacket. “They threw me out,” he quoted. “I don’t understand what happened.”
“That’s a funny joke,” he said. “There’s nothing racist about it. They would think it means it’s for bombs.”
“Well, if that’s racist, oh my God, I shouldn’t be in the public eye,” Ruic said. “You gotta take me as I am.”
“If people construe that I’m a racist, God bless ‘em,” he said. “I don’t care. It doesn’t affect my business at all,” said Kevin Ruic.
