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"The Racially Insenstive History of WWE"

3K views 33 replies 29 participants last post by  Reaper 
#1 ·


So somewhat famous YouTube "social commentator", Adam Buckley, recently talked about the debacle with Hulk Hogan. He makes no apology for Hogan's behavior but finds it funny how a company that had a long history of endorsing so many racially insensitive gimmicks/storylines on the air scrambled about to silence something of the same degree that was said in private. Of course, we as wrestling fans know the full story and most of the hypocrisy accusations against the WWE have come from us so really, he's appealing to the general populace who don't follow wrestling as religiously as we do but perhaps, his arguments might bring you some new perspective on the matter. Who knows. :draper2
 
#2 ·
Stephanie's tweets are all the proof I need to show how this company is so full of crap. It's all about the moooooonnneeeeey :vince$.

It's never been about doing "what's right". The WWE needs to keep it's public image up so they can make more money. If it was politically correct to be racist I'm sure you'd see wrestlers spoutin "N!gger! N!gger! N!gger!" for 3 hours on Raw.
 
#4 ·
And that didn't even get into the way they used to trash gay culture in the 90s. I really am not the person who gets offended by racial/un-PC humor or whatever, but I'm also not a hypocrite like them. If you had secret audio/video recordings of HHH/Stephanie, I'm sure you would hear or see alllllll kinds of very interesting things that go against the company PG policies and their completely phony "be a star" shit.
 
#9 ·
It certainly is a very fair point and hard to dismiss.

It reminds me of this brilliant proverb though and that's

Hypocrisy is the compliment vice pays to virtue

It reminds me of that proverb, it certainly doesn't fit like a glove as WWE is not, in my estimation, paying compliment to virtue so much as they are covering their corporate arses but it does speak to the question of:

Is it better to be consistently shameful or inconsistently noble?

I certainly say the latter. This doesn't mean you are not or should not be open to criticism for not having met the standard you hold others to - that's one of the positives that comes from this. Taking such a strong public stance against racism puts the spotlight on you both on your past conduct and on the present and future.

Sometimes the right things are done for the wrong reasons and progress is made either way, that's how I look at this. The other giant positive outcome is the discourse on bigotry and language that it's opened. It doesn't get better when you ignore it - it's of little to any improvement to have a surface level of apparent colour blindness if when called to jury, we see decades of comsmetic change counting for naught.
 
#16 ·
Loads of different groups of people have stereotypes including Americans themselves (******** for example). To cry racist over what happens to everyone seems odd to me.
Yeah WWE has given some black men some very stereotypical gimmicks, they've also given Brits stereotypical gimmicks so your point?
 
#19 · (Edited)
This is easy. White wrestlers, American wrestlers, British wrestlers etc. SOMETIMES also have stereotypical gimmicks but non white wrestlers rarerely have anything OTHER than stereotypical gimmicks exploiting their race.
It was the same for British wrestlers for a long time and it's only recently that you've seen Brits be something other than snobby lords or people whose whole chracter is that they're British. Difference here is they're foreigners who came to another country to wrestle. When you're an African American you're not some foreigner and you're not some outsider whose only imaginable appeal in their opinion is "he's some strange different person from another place".

You also overlook that British people in the United States and obviously in the UK too aren't affected in the non wrestling world by stereotypes. The Guerreros lied cheated and stole, R-Truth is a "straight D student" with "sticky fingers when he goes shopping". These things are real world nasty stereotypes that influence how Americans think of Hispanics and African Americans. They're also WAY more negative than "Brits are rich and snobby" or "Texans are cowboys (unless they're black, Asian or Hispanic)".

Like The Atlantic said "where are the black cult leaders, cool mercenaries" and I'll add "bizarre masters of mind games, narcissistic primadonnas" etc. etc. Almost every black wrestler's character/gimmick is either based around them being black or it's "he's so athletic" when people like Bryan, Rollins, Neville, even Justin Gabriel were "so athletic" but had a character even if it's "he's a daredevil who loves extreme sports".

Bottom line: Instead of finding the white wrestlers who also have these booking issues, count how many black/Hispanic/Asian wrestlers DON'T have these issues. "Crying racism" should mean they're making it up like "Crying wolf" - not actual undeniably racist things like "Mark Henry the big monkey" and all the othe things he listed. Do you say "Cry rape" when someone's been raped? "Cry domestic abuse"? Not comparing the things just saying that people say "they cry racism" to make out like people are making it up and it does a lot of damage to people making honest observations.
 
#23 ·
Most of WWE's racism is tongue in cheek indirect stuff.

But they were pretty direct when Cena used to claim that Sheamus was not as good as him because he was too pale.
 
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#6 ·
Vince and HHH are in fact racist towards several racial groups. Black people, Latino, etc. They are just smarter at hiding it than Hogan was. They also get their rocks off by being racist in the open, but covering it by claiming it was a "gimmick"

I could cite countless examples over the years of racist "gimmicks" and I am sure many of you can as well. Where do you think those ideas came from? Who had the final say if they would to to the ring? Vince McMahon.
 
#10 ·
I've been watching Dose of Buckley for a while, he is usually pretty good, he did miss some pronunciations and spelling and at one point I can't remember exactly where I thought he failed to do his research, but oh well, it doesn't detract from the point. This does make me wonder, if WWE legal is going to go after that video and get it flagged and shot down. It wouldn't much surprise me.
 
#18 ·
I've been watching Dose of Buckley for a while, he is usually pretty good, he did miss some pronunciations and spelling and at one point I can't remember exactly where I thought he failed to do his research, but oh well, it doesn't detract from the point. This does make me wonder, if WWE legal is going to go after that video and get it flagged and shot down. It wouldn't much surprise me.
He did say Hogan made WCW in the 2000s and also had a picture of Ryback as a WWE champion
 
#12 ·
I'm tired of the WWE and their closet racism behind the scenes and their preference to whites like John Cena, Big Show, Sheamus and Randy Orton. This also includes Wade Barrett, Kane, and Rusev!
 
#14 ·
I know he just passed and RIP but Piper at times could be really racist as well this is the same guy that called Bruno & an Italian jobber a *** and lets not forget the whole La Cucaracha thing yet I'm sure WWE will forget that and exploit his death to no end look up Ultimate Warrior & Eddie Guerrero....
 
#20 ·
Mr America's already apparently passed the buck to Vince's mentality but here's the thing - just because you say you have a Boss (Vince) who flaunts racism through his booking does that excuse or validate what he said outside of WWE within a discussion unrelated to wrestling and was purely about his daughter's relationship?
 
#21 · (Edited)
Wrestlers play exaggerated versions of themselves but then it's somehow racist if a black person plays an exaggerated character of a black person. It's also if racist Chavo plays a white person. So unless they're a boring lifeless character I guess there's no winning here. That black guy came out to a rap song. RACIST. He needs to come out to emo rock like every current white wrestler.

There's no denying the culture of racism that's imbedded in wrestling though. There's also no denying black wrestlers don't have the same opportunities white wrestlers have.
 
#28 ·
Buckley is actually someone I listen to, I agree with him about 90% of the time. His piece on changing white superheroes black and why it shouldn't be done was good. His thoughts on the slut walk and people being overly PC is good and he trashes tumblr feminists so hard. He's usually spot on, sometimes wrong but I agree with him 100% here.
 
#31 ·
Always entertaining to hear folks that aren't minorities speak on issues like this. It's just one of those things they won't ever understand but they'll try to.

Great video btw.
 
#34 · (Edited)
I think we need to separate characters and what's on TV from Hogan's tirade ---- On-screen gimmicks can be whatever they want. The real racism in the WWE is the lack of a black champion in their history (and words from Vince stating that America isn't ready for a black champion), the racial problems henry has had in the company throughout his time there, the Del Rio saga amongst others .. And I will include their lack of interest in seriously considering ever having a black athlete as the face of their company.

The more hardcore defenders of the WWE love to cite the fact that "oh there was never anybody good enough" .. To me that is absolutely bullcrap. Many WWE black athletes have gotten over as fuck and had their pushes stopped mid-push. As recent as 2013 Mark Henry in his feud with Cena was over enough to at least become a transitional champion .. He also deserved it for having a career full of dedication to the company.

If you want to compare real life racism to anything then you have to find real life examples of the WWE --- and those exist. Therefore people defending characters and only characters but not addressing the real forms of racism within the WWE are missing the boat.
 
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