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Submitted by Randomguy#5 on Friday, October 7, 2005 at 2:47 AM EST
Racism in Wrestling “Pretty fly for a white guy.” Welcome everybody to the column that is finally getting posted after about two years in the making The Nosebleed Section. I know I’ve taken some time off (again) but I didn‘t want to mess this one up. I’m skipping a lot of the fluff for this column because I want to keep the focus on what I want this to be, so give it a shot and we’ll get to the gimmicky stuff next time out. One night last summer, I’m hanging out with my roommates shooting the shit right? Its about 3:30 in the morning and we were all starting to contemplate sleep. I was giving my column a final bump (in the forums) before bed, when one of my roommates comes knocking on my door, fairly frantically, saying “There’s some guy banging on my door, saying ‘open up man, its an emergency’”. The way that house is set up, it used to be a duplex, so both bedrooms have outside doors, and having seen my roommate’s light on, he assumed that was the correct door to knock on, as opposed to the door at the side of the driveway that we typically use to enter the house. I open the door, and yell out for the guy to come around the side of the house, when he comes jogging up on the deck outside my door. He begins frantically talking, saying “Man, my car broke down about ten miles up the road, I walked here from there man. Its outta gas, and my baby girl is in it, fuckin police wouldn’t help, nobody answers the door. The cops stop to help me, but don’t believe me, ain’t nobody wants to help out a brother this time of night man. I ain’t tryin to hustle you man, I just need like twelve bucks and a ride up the street, man…” and the stranger continued rambling. This guy, was wearing khaki shorts and a polo shirt, with tears in his eyes, absolutely frantic, yet was unable to get help from anybody at 3:30 am on a Saturday night. Why? So much of wrestling today is obvious. Perhaps we as fans think we know everything, perhaps we assume to much, and perhaps we are actually correct in our assumptions-guilty of overdosing on information. The life of a wrestling fan is such nowadays that little is left to the imagination, few things ever truly take us by surprise because even if we didn’t actually read it via spoiler, we’ve seen it all before and knew exactly what was coming. By this same logic, I feel as I type this that I’m stating the obvious. Discussing racism in wrestling is such an apparent topic that either 1) people have no interest in talking about it or 2) people are uncomfortable talking about it. Simply ignoring it however is a bit naive to me, the proverbial “elephant in the corner of the room”. Everybody knows it’s there, but nobody is mentioning it. Nonetheless, I feel as if it has been an appropriate amount of time since anybody from this neck of the e-woods has tackled this issue, and the timing seems to be appropriate as well. Having been roughly one month since the Hurricane Katrina disasters ravaged portions of the US, the once roaring accusations of racism in governmental aid distribution have dwindled to an incoherent mumbling, a whisper of dirty words and finger-waving. Four weeks after rapper Kanye West went off the page during a benefit show and claimed George Bush hates black people, 140 years since the end of slavery, and two score since the Civil Rights Act, American society is still polluted with a poisonous cloud of racism. In a true case of art imitating life, the WWE was quick to jump on the bandwagon. I’m speaking of course of the Kerwin White character (played by a Latino in a true stroke of irony). I think from the first promo of the former Chavo, the IWC cringed and held its collective breath, waiting to see how the WWE would allow the ignorance of racism to yet again stagger drunkenly onto our television screen. “If its not white, its not right” claimed Kerwin, calling out Shelton Benjamin. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on your point of view) the WWE did what has become its trademark (pun intended): They took an idea with potential and did it half-assed. The Kerwin White character (which is a waist of airtime at this point, I feel for Chavo) has dropped many of the racist overtones, and seemingly the entire feud has been dropped, not only squandering the talent of Chavo Guerrero but successfully pulling the plug on the push of Benjamin, who might be the best in ring talent on the Raw roster. So forgive me once again for hanging blinking Christmas lights on that elephant in the corner, but if I am to interpret this correctly, WWE brass has used an angle tainted with racist overtones to (for the time being anyway) fritter away the successful characters of Chavo Guerrero (a Mexican) and Shelton Benjamin (an African-American). What gives? Bare in mind that during these events on Raw, Orlando Jordan (another African American whom the brass seemed high on for a time) has been forced into a meaningless angle in which he cannot last so much as 30 seconds in the ring with Chris Benoit. Now, granted I am not of the belief that Jordan nor his character warrant much more than 30 seconds with Benoit, but taken in conjunction with Benjamen and Chavo, one can’t help but raise an eyebrow. Furthering the issue, are accusations that one reader pointed out of crowd taunts of “monkey” aimed at Jordan, fueling the idea that perhaps the WWE is doing something to proliferate an under the table racist agenda. While I would certainly not go so far as to say this, I would venture to guess that the WWE is not presently doing anything to subdue these concepts, a responsibility that a former Fortune 500 company, and one in a position to influence the world’s youth, should certainly embrace. Racism is a dark scar on the otherwise pretty face of America’s history but in spite of the tremendous strides toward overcoming this foolish ideology, recent events stand testament to the notion that racism is still an underground current that touches the lives of everybody in America (I cannot speak for other nationalities, though I’d be curious to hear their take). While I do not believe that active crusading against racism is necessarily conducive to positive change, I am of the belief that people in a position to positively effect the opinions of the young and/or under-educated have a responsibility to do so. Presently, the WWE is in no way making these strides. Nor have they ever. Without overwhelming the reader with statistics allow me to once again point out the obvious. In it’s history, the WWE has never had an African-American world champion. WCW, before it’s demise had a few, namely Booker T and Ron Simmons, both of whom were buried upon their arrival to the WWE. While the argument could be made that Ron Simmons (known as Faarooq) never had the charisma required of a WWE champion (particularly at the time of his jump) Booker T is/was a charismatic showman with much to offer when given proper room to develop a character. The long standing excuse for these burials the WWE simply does not have the fan base to support a minority champion. This argument fails to hold water, particularly when one attends a live event and notes the demographic of the crowd. Consider also, the success of John Cena, portraying a character that most fans would admittedly associate with an African-American culture. The Latino presence in the WWE fan base has certainly been noted in recent memory with the success of Rey Mysterio and Eddie Guerrero on Smackdown, as well as the brief run in the sun of the Mexicools. I believe it to be little more than a matter of time and recognition, before a similar following is developed for an African-American wrestler. Which leads into the second most popular defense of the WWE’s seemingly racist behaviors. It has long been said that there has yet to be a talented enough performer to justify the appointment to “champion” level. To this I think the aforementioned Shelton Benjamin (with improved mic skills) is worth noting, and even more so is TNA’s Ron “The Truth” Killings. Truth portrays a classic “black” character with loads of charisma, and by appealing to a minority audience (a tactic TNA has shown willing to attempt in the past) Impact could potentially develop a loyal fan base in another counter-culture sort of movement, similar to what made ECW popular from a marketing standpoint. People crave something different, and whereas ECW gave that with blood, violence, intensity and emotion, TNA could easily accomplish the same effect by appealing to a variety of “anti-WWE” crowds-namely the X-Division, IWC, Latino and African American fanbases. Given the representation of minorities in the NFL, NBA and Major League Baseball when combined with the relative representations in the entertainment industry, it only stands to reason that the WWE would have a similar (and perhaps slightly less) representation in its cast of characters. Yet in an ensemble that presently includes a zombie, a slue of ditzy Divas, a deranged Mexican claiming ownership of another man’s son, pseudo-gay men, “cowboys”, superheroes, and more rich white guys than you can shake a stick at, the most traditional “black” character is portrayed by a white male. Perhaps it is out of parody that the WWE repeatedly gives us stereotypical roles. Pimps and gigolo, oppressed black men, angry black men screaming racism, and Mexicans on lawn mowers have all lost their depth to me. I fail to “get” the joke, and while given appropriate amounts of intelligence I feel these characters could be pulled of in a satirical fashion, such depth is beyond the capacity of the WWE. Sadly, it is possible that such a character, done correctly, would be beyond the capacity of much of the WWE fan base. This stereotype of a wrestling audience is either wrong, and the characters should be adjusted as such, or it is correct and these types of cliché characters should be abandoned all together because they are setting a horrendous example for an impressionable group. The WWE has a long sad history of spinning characters as satire in an attempt to shed light on a negative social issue, and doing so quite poorly. If you don’t believe me, I suggest you ask Eugene or Haasan. I do not presently believe the WWE to be a racist organization. Scripted angles to the contrary, such as the Nation of Domination or heel lines such as “people like you don’t beat people like me” or “that’s very white of you Eric” (both by Triple H) are little more than great “heel” rhetoric and should be treated as such. Oddly enough, it is these two circumstances that the WWE has had success. The Triple H v Booker T feud that headlined WM 19 was a brilliantly done development of Booker T’s character with subtle racist overtones in Triple H’s character, both done quite well up the point that the wrong man went over in the end. The Nation of Domination was a “angry black” stable that eventually spawned the brilliance of The Rock, portraying a “black” character in spite of the fact that he is half Samoan and subsequently “got whiter” as his career went on. Racism is an ideology founded in ignorance, fueled by ignorance. I fail to see how in today’s age of education any capable, educated adult can harbor racist sentiments. Please don’t misunderstand a sense of discomfort for racism. Being a white male myself, I can honestly say that confronted with a group of black men in an unfamiliar environment I begin to squirm a bit. Such is not the result of racism, but is rather an unfamiliarity (and to some degree a lack of understanding) of another group’s culture. Much like religion, tolerance and respect are the key. For these reasons I cannot fathom that Vince, Trips and the rest of the brass sit around and contemplate ways to keep the white man happy while the black man dances. Much like the accusations of George Bush and his administration, a racist agenda in today’s society is not only ignorant, but it would be financial and social suicide to execute. Men of power, wealth and prestige simply do not rise to these positions in today’s day and age by harboring outward racist agendas. No, rather it is much more likely that the instances which would seem to indicate racism are the result of drastic miscalculations on the part of all parties involved. Much like the way the WWE and TNA addressed the desires of the IWC in recent years with Chris Benoit, Matt Hardy, and “worked” shoots, the time is fast approaching when those charged with making decisions must realize that a reassessment of fan base is in order. Perhaps only then will those responsible demonstrate the necessary social responsibility, dropping the racist innuendos and replacing them with an appropriate portrait when art imitates life. A colorblind portrait. Outta Left Field A few months ago in Columbia, MO (home of the MU Tigers) there was an incident in which the police shot and killed a man. Being black, the local and to some degree national media jumped all over this and there was investigation launched to find out if the killings were racially motivated, as was alleged. Around the time of the investigations, a large man dressed in full Klu Klux Klan attire positioned himself on the busiest intersection of Columbia, a town of 93,000 people, holding a sign that read “Racial Profiling is Prevalent in Columbia.” The man, despite the urging of several citizens refused to remove himself. The police were called in (which seemed like a great idea given what started the investigation) and eventually the local chapter of the NAACP was called in, complete with its black, female head member. With the NACCP and the local cops and the local media all present, screaming down the face of the KKK member and his sign, the man removed his white hood and gloves to reveal a black man underneath, further proving his point. He quietly sat down his sign and walked away. Hope you guys enjoyed this column, I’m looking forward to feedback, so drop me a line and let me know what you think. Thanks for climbing the stairs to the Nosebleed Section but next time, get better seats. Click here to Email Randomguy#5! Updates for The Project coming this weekend….   *NEW GALLERY* Over 14 Total HIGH QUALITY Maria 2008 PB Photos! MUST SEE!
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