As a kid--and admittedly not too long ago as well-- I was always a big fan of professional wrestling. I've always been excited by the high-flying special moves, the overly dramatic personalities, and the nail biting last minute kick outs (yes, I know it's all fake. And yes, I do still get excited). Also, the writers create different storylines for the characters so it ends up becoming a hyper-masculine soap opera for manly men (such as myself). But only recently have I really started paying attention and I all of a sudden noticed that a lot of the story lines are extremely racist (and often homophobic as well).
If you don't think so or if you aren't too familiar with pro wrestling you can check out some of those extremely offensive moments here.
The article above is a compilation of what MTV blogger Andreas Hale believes to be the ten most offensive moments in wrestling. It includes that moment at Wrestlemania 91' when The Million Dollar Man explained why his African American "bodyguard" does whatever he wants because he gets paid to do so to the night when African American wrestler Shelton Benjamin mocked Japanese American wrestler Yoshi Tatsu by bringing up old and tired Japanese stereotypes. One gimmick that I must have missed between my time as a younger fan to more recent times was the group known as the "Mexicools" who rode in to the arena on a lawn mower (which is done because as Hale notes; "Mexicans are always gardeners").
But the earlier years of wrestling were admittedly a time when censorship wasn't that big of an issue, where as today anything that is "live" is actually delayed a certain amount of time just in case anything gets a little out of hand (viewer discretion is advised for those who click). So one might argue that the WWE has gotten better about their blatant racism, but I would argue that today's racism is a bit more subtle and requires a bit more attention.
One of the more recent duos in the WWE is called "Cryme Tyme" and they are essentially based on every single "ghetto black person" stereotype you can think of (and then some). In the video below they can be seen in a short sketch (meant to be funny) where they visit retirement community where they are supposed to entertain the elderly audience, but they end up arriving with baggy pants, a bullet proof vest, and all kinds of "bling." They sing "Christmas carols" about crackheads, robbing white people, and pimping. If you visit the youtube page of the video you will find that well over 1000 people "liked" the video (versus a measly 35 "dislikes").
And the worst part about all this is that these extremely over-exaggerated stereotypes are portrayed as good guys in the WWE. They are the people that the audience is supposed to cheer for. They are the people who the audience is supposed to laugh with whenever they tell their jokes or insult the heels (bad guys). What kind of message does this to the younger non-black audience about black people? What kind of message does this send to young black kids? And what kind of message does this send to the WWE audience in general?
Before, I might have just laughed at this sketch and not given it much thought, but at this point in my life I feel like I need to stop, think and ask myself these types of questions. Afterwards, the next (and hardest) step is to raise these questions publicly. If you just look at the youtube comments on some of these very offensive videos you can see that raising these kinds of questions to some people would introduce a lot of resistance and unwillingness to even begin thinking about such things. Many will just shrug people like myself off as someone who is overly-sensitive about racism and someone who "doesn't know how to take a joke," but we should still continue to try and increase dialogue and raise these important questions until everyone starts thinking.
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