By the Pound: Racism in the Wrestling Ring
by Special Correspondent Fatemeh Fakhraie
Last night, as I was flipping through the channels, I stopped on the Spike network, which is geared toward a male audience (well, most television is geared toward a male audience, but that’s a different soapbox). Perhaps I should say heavily geared toward a male audience. I mean, between the James Bond marathons, Axe commercials, and ultimate fighting programs, it starts to get a little, uh, over-done. The same way the Lifetime network’s pregnancy test commercials and movies about victimized women start to get ridiculous.*
Anyway, let’s get to the real reason I stopped on this channel. TNA Impact is basically another one of Spike’s wrestling programs, and it was this program that caught my attention. Because there was a woman in a niqab wrestling.
Really!
After digging around online, I found out who she was: her stage name is Raisha Saeed. Saeed’s biography details that she is from Damacus, Syria, and manages another female wrestler, Awesome Kong. Rooting around a little more, I find out that she is not, in fact, Muslim (put on your surprised face!) or Syrian.
Her real name is Melissa Marie Anderson. She usually goes by the stage name of Cheerleader Melissa, and has a very long and impressive wrestling career.
I wasn’t able to figure out why Ms. Anderson, who has two other stage names, would don a niqab, a fakey Arab accent and broken English, and an Arab (-sounding) stage name. Wrestling programs are full of gimmicky personas, and so I’m assuming that’s what this is, too. From the mysterious Arab music that plays when she enters the ring to her MySpace page, it’s one huge (racist) gimmick.
TNA Impact had an “interview” with Saeed and the female wrestler she manages: a black woman whose stage name is Awesome Kong. During the interview, Saeed speaks for herself and as a mouthpiece for Kong, who just sat there and actively looked menacing. And, of course, Saeed’s niqab came up in the interview.
The interviewer asks, “One of the aspects, I think, of your mystery comes from the dress you wear. What is the story behind the burka?”
“My burqa is none of your concern.”
Nevermind that it’s a niqab, not a burqa. Past this, however, no mention of her clothing or of Islam enters into the stage persona. In the admittedly limited clips I’ve seen, there is no mention of jihad or death to infidels–things that usually come up in racist portrayals of Arabs and Muslims. Thankfully, Islam seems to be left alone, aside from her headgear and the fact that, as a gimmicky Arab wrestler, she has committed the played-out conflation of Arab = Muslim.
But the racism doesn’t go away: another interview, Saeed refers to Kong as a “monster” who other wrestlers should not provoke. And then throws in a few garbledy Arabic phrases.
YouTube – Awesome Kong Interview
(Embedding is disabled on this video.)
Despite the fact that Islam is not an overt part of Saeed’s persona, it’s alluded to in a match between Saeed and Taylor Wilde, in which the overtones of “culture-clash” can hardly be ignored. A blonde-blue eyed wrestler with the American flag motif on her wrestling outfit battles a niqab-wearing (and thus Muslim) Arab wrestler? A bit obvious, wouldn’t you say?
Wrestling history is full of racist imagery, from The Iron Sheik to Sapphire. So neither Kong nor Saeed should come as a huge surprise. But that doesn’t make it any less offensive. Saeed’s character continues the designation of Arabs as Muslims, and Kong’s character stirs up characterizations of blacks as animalistic and savage. It’s just so played that it’s almost funny (aside from the general hilarity of the choreographed ballet known as wrestling).
Readers, what do you think of all this?
*Note: Don’t even start with me on the Lifetime channel. I’m not saying that movies about domestic violence aren’t important or that what happens to these women isn’t a real problem. My point is that Lifetime doesn’t do these women any favors by always portraying women as victims and nothing but.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
DiosaNegra1967 wrote:
i used to be a big wrestling fan, back in the day….
i loved to watch it when there were ACTUALLY good (hell, fantastic) women wrestlers around…..but i gave it up for its’ rampant racism and sexism….just couldn’t deal with the overgrown, steroid-pumped dunderheads anymore….especially when women were relegated to “catfights” or “assistant” status….ugh.
don’t get me started on lifetime (i call it “wifetime: the perpetual victim network)….my mom loves that channel! ick!
Posted 03 Sep 2008 at 8:41 am ¶
DiosaNegra1967 wrote:
of course, the whole america vs. “those foreign brown people (insert country, if you know it, here)” doesn’t surprise me one iota…..really, it doesn’t…..i guess the GOP is drumming up support anyway it can….
how much y’all wanna bet that the CEOs of these “wrestling” entertainment corporations are actually large contributors to the GOP?
Posted 03 Sep 2008 at 8:43 am ¶
Chris wrote:
Diosa: As far as I can remember, professional wrestling has always been that way: the uber-American hero wrestler always manages to have an outsider who is a thorn in his side. Sometimes, it’s a white guy like Nails the prison escapee or The Mountee the cheating Canadian.
Other times, it’s stuff like this.
Also apparent is the usual dumb as a rock brown person. This time it’s Awesome Kong (the Kong part really disturbs me… hadn’t we had our fill of that bull with the LeBron James cover?), but in the past there have been wrestlers like the exremely viscious, primitve, non-language speaking pacific islander (his name escapes me at the moment) who had to be coached on the right way to pin his opponent during the match.
In addition to all this, where was a “feud” on professional wrestling way back, when No Limit was a driving force in mainstream rap, when Master P and his wrestling team were going against the good-old cowboy wrestler types who proclaimed that “rap is crap” while entering the ring. They’d usually hush up once Master P’s wrestler Swole would get into the ring, not saying a word, and stare them down with a meancing face. In fact, I think Swole was another wrestler who didn’t speak at all, but was just a big dark-skinned man there to intimidate other wrestlers with his brute force.
Don’t forget gimmicky black wrestlers like Mr. T, with his tons of jewelry, and Booker T, who would break dance in the ring as his style of wrestling, that usually reinforced stereotypes of blacks in the professional wrestling ring.
Posted 03 Sep 2008 at 9:17 am ¶
V-Knowledge wrote:
I was an avid follower of pro wrestling until the quality became garbage post 2001. Occasionally I check out a couple of online message boards to see the recent happenings.
Speaking of racism in wrestling, what about WWE’s Kofi Kingston? Here, you have a Ghanaian who is presented as a Jamaican man. The reasoning behind this is that WWE management (re: Vince McMahon) believes that no one would be familiar with the African country. So rather than taking a good opportunity to present something “new” to audiences, they decide to package Kofi as a Caribbean wrestler.
How quaint.
Posted 03 Sep 2008 at 9:29 am ¶
Celeste wrote:
I pity the fool who would impune the reputation of Mr. T! He’s awesome and his cereal was tasty, too. However, the same cannot be said for wack race profiteering that Kong (shudder) and Saeed engage in. Booo!
Posted 03 Sep 2008 at 9:36 am ¶
J.R. Bernard wrote:
I used to watch wrestling when I was younger. I think as I got older, the quality of the ‘wrestling’, as well as my realization that its all staged, led me to stop watching.
I think this blog points out what really has been going on for a while though, with the personification of certain stereotypes and such.
These ’storylines’ I guess play to their targeted audience very well though…. unfortunately.
Posted 03 Sep 2008 at 9:43 am ¶
KuriusJurge612 wrote:
@ Fatemeh
“And then throws in a few garbledy Arabic phrases”
Yah Halloah lal lalal eiiiiiiiiiiiiighhhhhhhhh!
LOL you had me rollin on that one!
WHy do people think that ME/Arab people speak only this way? And why is their imitation always fake Arabic words?
Posted 03 Sep 2008 at 10:10 am ¶
Arturo wrote:
A note about TNA Wrestling’s creative team:
* Most, if not all, of the storylines are put together by the troika of Jeff Jarrett, Dutch Mantel and former WWE writer Vince Russo. The first two gents learned the trade “Memphis-style” during the ’70s and ’80s. Russo famously — at least, in wrestling circles — gave an interview expressing his disdain for Mexican and Japanese wrestlers, saying American wrestling fans want to watch American wrestlers.
The sad thing, besides a young African-American woman choosing the name “Awesome Kong” (and make no mistake, it was her choice, as she had been performing under the name Amazing Kong in Japan before being signed to TNA), is that the company already has at least one marketable performer of color they could easily build the company around in Samoa Joe. Joe, by the way, is reportedly from Orange County, but after he started performing in TNA, was announced as being “from Samoa.” Make of that what you will.
Posted 03 Sep 2008 at 10:38 am ¶
Versai wrote:
V-knowledge, if the past is any indication of what wrestling shows will do in the future, you don’t really want a wrestling show to give audiences something new in relation to POCs. Do you remember Kamala–The Ugandan Headhunter?
Posted 03 Sep 2008 at 10:40 am ¶
kanani wrote:
I guess this is another reason not to watch wrestling.
As for the stereotyping …this was done in movies in the earlier eras. White people playing asians, mexicans, arabs, indians and the gamut in an exaggerated way that emphasized inferiority by picking out differences. But times have changed, and the movie industry with it. I guess the hold out is wrestling, which is stuck in some weird dark place where the sun never shines.
Anyway, that’s one hell of a way to make a living. Good luck to all of them. I just hope they have good health insurance and long term disability in plans all paid up.
Posted 03 Sep 2008 at 10:43 am ¶
Danny wrote:
When it comes to Awesome Kong I like that fact that there is a female wrestler that isn’t just there for eye candy. She is a very physically dominiating woman in the ring and I think that counts for something. But at the same time its awful that one of the precious few prominent black female wrestlers is a silent monster (frankly speaking most womon or man that is that large is often made up to be the silent monster type when it comes to wrestling). As far as wrestling is concerned all large people are just angry monsters that live for destruction I guess…
…that usually reinforced stereotypes of blacks in the professional wrestling ring.
This reminds me of Ron Killings. An excellent athelete but for some reason unlike other tall and lean wrestlers like Jeff Hardy or Koffi Kingston, Killings’ gimmick seems to be his almost constant dancing…
Posted 03 Sep 2008 at 10:44 am ¶
Arturo wrote:
Danny,
Not to excuse Killings’ gimmick, but isn’t part of the reason behind the dancing his moonlighting as a hip-hop artist? I always got the sense he was trying to cross-brand himself.
Posted 03 Sep 2008 at 10:52 am ¶
DEAF FEMINIST PUNK!! wrote:
You guys forgot that THE GREAT KHALI (a South Asian/Punjabi wrestler) is assigned to an Iranian assistant who pretends to be Indian and pretends to speak a foreign tongue similar to the Great Khali’s tongue (Punjabi).
I find it so completely racist and ignorant.
Posted 03 Sep 2008 at 11:24 am ¶
Shae wrote:
Long Time lurker, 1st time poster.
Full disclosure: I am a white female who has worked in the wrestling industry for 10 years. However, I do not now, nor have I ever, worked for TNA Wrestling.
I had to get in here and talk about this. As an agnent who represents wrestlers of color, and as someone who also works as an on-screen character myself, these issues are near and dear to me.
First of all, a wrestler’s character is usually chosen based on a facet of his or her personality. In the case of TNA, many wrestlers come to the table with a self-chosen character that they then portray on TNA television and PPV. This is the case with Kong. SHE chose to be Kong. Ron Killings character dances because Ron Killings dances in his regular life. I never have felt that this was the focal point of his character, just one aspect of it.
In regards to Melissa Anderson: she wears a niqab instead of a burqa because her face needs to be COMPLETELY covered so that the audience can not tell that it is Cheerleader Melissa underneath. That is also the reason for the eye makeup. They mistakenly CALL it a burqa because TNA’s CORE, target audience DOES NOT KNOW what a niqab is. But, they do know what a burqa is from all of the news coverage, etc. after September 11.
As far as why she was given a character completely apart from her real-life–many times in wrestling, we are asked to portray a character that is like being an actress in a movie. Throughout my career, I have been a Nazi (I am certainly not), a Fundamentalist Christian Sect Leader (Not even close), and a Russian Spy (I am neither Russian, nor a Spy!)
I always thought her accent was passable, but I think that more than anything, it is used to disguise her voice so that the audience doesn’t know it’s Cheerleader Melissa. Why they chose to make her Middle eastern, I don’t know. Perhaps it was the only way they knew to do the dual character thing with her and make it beliveable. (B/c she would be covered completely.)
RE: Awesome Kong’s character. Oftentimes, even WHITE MEN will portray “savage” characters in wrestling. This is done usually because the guy or girl may look impressive and wrestle well but be unable to portray their character verbally because of lack of “promo skills”, or an unusual voice that will screw up the suspension of disbelief necessary for a wrestling show to work. For some reason, it was determined that Kong would be more effective as a character if not allowed to speak for herself–that’s why she stands there and looks menacing while Melissa talks. There are white men in wrestling who have had this same character. It was not done, i don’t believe , solely because she is black.
Diosa: There are still a great many talented female wrestlers around. Many of them work for TNA actually. You should give it a look if you enjoy women’s wrestling. There is also a company called Shimmer you can find them online.
Chris: Mr T was never really a wrestler, and Kong’s character is not “dumb”. I think sociopathic is more appropriate. Booker T does not breakdance. He has 1-2 moves that he does that are derived from that. He doesn’t even dance as much as Ron Killings, in fact, he does not dance at all. The character that he portrays would find dancing undignified.
Arturo: Great comment! Remember that this is a Southern Company appealing to (mostly) a really Redneck southern audience. Wrestling is a mirror of some aspects of society. Wrestling doesn’t do “teachable moments.” It doesn’t change without a fight. It doesn’t want to show it’s audience something new. It took us years for women to make some headway. I think that a man like Samoa Joe is a prime example of the slow and steady change that we are seeing in the industry. He IS world champ at TNA. He has the forum. In the past, he, and other wrestlers of color, including Kong, would not have even had that.
(Kong was the TNA women’s champion.)
Thank you all for reading. If this is irrelevant, please feel free not to post.
Posted 03 Sep 2008 at 12:22 pm ¶
deb wrote:
I immediately thought of the Iron Sheik and those patriotic chants of “USA! USA! USA!”
Sure do! AKA The Ugandan Giant. He was supposed to be a cannibal. He never said a word with his uncivilized self. I think we were supposed to be reminded of Idi Amin Dada.
Posted 03 Sep 2008 at 12:46 pm ¶
Arturo wrote:
Hi Shae,
Good to hear from somebody in the business. And though, as a longtime fan, I agree that wrestling doesn’t do “change” very well, I’m particularly dismayed that someone as obviously and openly xenophobic as Vince Russo continues to draw a paycheck.
Oddly, one could make the argument that things have actually gotten worse on a national level since the early ’80s. During that time, in the mid-south territory (which encompassed Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana), JunkYard Dog was the featured performer, and was credited with drawing crowds of allegedly more than 10,000 to the Superdome.
Posted 03 Sep 2008 at 1:36 pm ¶
Shae wrote:
I wanted to edit the above to state my true point in posting:
That not every decision in these particular cases detailed were made with racist intent or even racism in MIND. Some were made for convienience, or to further a story line.
My other point is that wrestling, because it is a skill and a culture handed down from one generation to the next generation via the training that people must undertake to be able to be a part of the industry, is slower to change than some other forms of entertainment. All the old, racist guard is still with us, and in some cases running things and they are certainly a part of our audience.
But there has been positive change. Just maybe not as fast or as much as people would like.
Posted 03 Sep 2008 at 1:40 pm ¶
Ariana wrote:
Shae: AMAZING comment! You made the points that I was going to make and then some.
I have not followed wrestling regularly in about a year, but I have occasionally watched TNA’s women’s matches, and it has vastly improved both in terms of wrestling quality and performers. It is not uncommon for blonde, blue-eyed, “all-American” women to be the faces (good guys), while the thicker, “less attractive” women (in other words, actual female wrestlers) as well as women of color are the heels (bad guys), but in TNA the situation is reversed. The blonde all-Americans are the subject of derision while bigger, more athletic women like ODB, Korean-Canadian Gail Kim (when she was still working for TNA) and Awesome Kong are the ones the audience roots for. That is not something you will likely ever see in the desperate-for-mainstream-attention WWE.
Also, to add to Shae’s comment, I can think of a recent white male wrestler who rarely spoke: Brock Lesnar. Google him and you will find that he is practically the prototype for the Aryan superman. But because he has a non-threatening voice and his promo skills were perceived as lackluster, he was given a manager to act his as his mouthpiece during his first few years as a performer.
I think you (Fatemeh) raise very interesting points – it would be naive of me to deny the rampant sexism and racism in wrestling – but I believe that in order to understand fully why wrestling works the way it does, you have to view it within its own context instead of isolating specific scenes.
Posted 03 Sep 2008 at 1:46 pm ¶
DiosaNegra1967 wrote:
thanx, shae for your insight as a “insider”….
Posted 03 Sep 2008 at 1:58 pm ¶
Juan wrote:
Ugh, I’m reminded why I stopped bothering with wrestling as I grew up. Didn’t think it had got worse/remained the same.
Shae,
Intent doesn’t mean squat when the end result is wrong. Nor does slowness to change excuse or make up for anything–not that you were doing either to begin with.
Posted 03 Sep 2008 at 1:59 pm ¶
Arturo wrote:
*sigh* Anybody other wrestling fans miss The Rock after reading about stuff like this?
Posted 03 Sep 2008 at 2:12 pm ¶
ATLGirl wrote:
Shae, I seldom post, but I must comment. Your post was great. Very informative. Honestly, I haven’t watched wrestling in years, but I never expected it to be politically correct when I did.
Posted 03 Sep 2008 at 2:54 pm ¶
A. Taveras wrote:
Indignation is not well spent on wrestling. What can I say other than every sort of stereotype is abused in pro-wrestling…anti-women, anti-color, anti-gay and even anti-rural. They will go to any length for a joke. At best you can take comfort that they are in a sense equal opportunity offenders. So just accept it as the bottom of the barrel of entertainment, laugh and/or change the channel. One thing is for certain in pro-wrestling condemnation will fall on deaf ears…I can think of only two instances where they pulled back on an offensive storyline, one of which did actually involve an Arabic terrorist character, another involving an elaborately staged death.
A fave moment of mine: a texas-cowboy-turned -wall st.-tycoon announcer in all seriousness and full of indignation accuses the black General Manager of the show of being racist for holding back a black wrestler.
Posted 03 Sep 2008 at 2:59 pm ¶
Logan wrote:
More on the backgrounds of Awesome Kong and Raisha/Melissa, from my years of following wrestling.
Awesome Kong was trained in Japan by Aja Kong, a half-black/half-Japanese large powerhouse female wrestler, who was the monster heel during her career, and on top during the golden years of Japan’s women’s wrestling. Amazing/Awesome Kong, much like Aja was in her prime, is one of the best women’s wrestlers in the world, in large part due to her strength and size. While most women are in the 100 – 150 range, Kong’s I think 280 or something along those lines, twice as heavy as everyone out there. Her character was molded by herself on the independent circuits, and brought into TNA as a monster heel because, simply put, she’s a monster. There is certain racist imagery played off of at times (I think a couple wrestlers have flippantly referred to her as a beast, or Queen Kong in a couple promos), this is much more due to her physical presence than skin tone.
With Raisha, she’s Melissa Anderson, as many people have mentioned, wrestling as Cheerleader Melissa. She in some people’s eyes is the best female wrestler in the world. For some reason, she was brought in as a mouthpiece for TNA for Kong as Raisha. She apparently had many Syrian friends when she was younger, which inspired the gimmick as she could pull off a reasonable accent as well as the makeup. This would lead me to believe that she suggested this gimmick herself, or that she brought it up in an interview and it was modeled around her. The Nihab/Burqua has been a minor subject before in TNA (one wrestler, ODB, had on a couple occasions tried to take it off, and I think actually does so on the Impact show tomorrow night before Kong decks her), but outside of that she has been decent at her role, which knowing wrestling will eventually involve a turn of Kong on her or her on Kong when the shelf life has ran up.
There are better examples of racism/sexism/homophobia in wrestling than the ones provided here though. In TNA, Shawn Davari, a wrestler born in the US of Middle-Eastern descent, plays Shiek Abdul Bashir, a wrestler who claims he’s living the American Dream because he succeeded in spite of the prejudice against his people, and in a promo once said he raped lady Liberty. His finisher is the WMD, a DDT I believe. Over in WWE, there’s Cryme Time, a tag-team of two black men from Brooklyn who have a propensity to steal things from their opponents, use the catchphrase of “Money Money, yeah yeah” (which I know is from something but I don’t know what), and one of them will semi-frequently yell about his preference for “Big Booty Girls.” Shockingly, they’re faces, although the alleged hip-hop culture has been embraced enough for people to laugh with them about this. A few years back, the WWE also had the Mexi-Cools, consisting of Latin wrestlers Super Crazy, Psichosis, and Juventuud Gurererra (probably a little off on the spelling), who would come down to the ring riding on John Deere tractors, playing off the stereotypes against Mexicans. They varied from face to heel (good to bad) before they were split up. There was also Eddie and Chavo Guererro’s “Lie, Cheat, Steal” catchphrase which got them over as good guys.
And to throw even more out there, there is plenty of racism behind the curtain as well. Michael P.S. Hayes of the Fabulous Freebirds was recently suspended I believe 90 days and forced to go to racial sensitivity classes and to not drink while on the job because he told former Olympic Weightlifter Mark Henry (current ECW champion) that he was more of a n***** than Henry was, and Henry went to Vince about it. Hayes had been told this earlier from a black wrestler currently on Smackdown he was friends with, MVP/Montel Vontavious Porter. Also, according to the book Ring of Hell, Vince McMahon when talking with Carlito Colon, son of legendary Puerto Rican wrestler Carlos Colon, about his gimmick when it would debut, to “Spic it up.” Vince has also used the N-word on a PPV broadcast, in front of former WWE wrestler Booker T, referring to John Cena. Additionally, Bobby Lashley and his wife Kristal Marshall, who met while in WWE, both left the company due to alleged racial disputes.
In a completely serious note, this is only a tiny tip of a large iceburg of wrestling and racism. You could write thousands of pages documenting the history of racism and racist gimmicks and behaviors and such in wrestling as well as backstage stories, with all of these being strong enough that even a Typical White Person without much argument would admit it was racist (ie: I don’t think many TWPs would say Booker T doing his Spinaroonie, as called by the announcers, is racist). And while it has gotten better in modern times (as in: No Colonel DeBeers from South Africa calling black men savages and refusing to lock up with black men or if black referees were in the ring and praising Apartheid, or Tony Atlas coming in as Saba Simba, a barefooted spear wielding African who found his roots, both mid to late 80s/early 90s), there’s still plenty of examples like Booker T in WWE being told by Ric Flair and HHH that his kind of people couldn’t make it as a champion, and that he wouldn’t be able to carry Ric Flair’s bags (and low and behold, he was beat at Wrestlemania by HHH in a fashion where he got shunted down from being viewed as a title contender until he adopted a King Booker gimmic like 3 years later). This happened circa….. 04 I think, maybe 03. It was adopted from a similar Harley Race promo from the early 90s dealing with Ron Simmons, who at least had the decency to win the belt and be only the second Black World title holder in history, behind Bobo Brazil’s aborted NWA title reigns. Oh, and Ron Simmons current gimmick, though he’s only around sparingly, is to show up in unexpected places when someone does something embarrassing and say, in a loud booming voice, DAMN! And this started from a one-off appearance where John Cena, after Booker T called an album of Kevin Federline a treasure, told Booker that he officially lost his status as a black man, to which Simmons’ “Damn” seemed to solidify.
…..Ok, I’ve ranted way too much on wrestling, I apologize for the thousands of words all y’all had to read on that.
Posted 03 Sep 2008 at 3:37 pm ¶
Shae wrote:
I’m glad I could contribute positively to this discussion. Thank you for your kind words.
Juan: I agree. But I felt it important to let people who read this thread into the thought process behind WHY these things are done. I think positive change can come from knowing the reasons behind why decisions like these are made. Wrestling, like everything else in our society, is a work in progress.
A. Taveras: You may be a bit surprised by this but–I agree with you TOTALLY. Wrestling uses a LOT of stereotypical stuffand the industry doesn’t really care if anyone’s offended. That is part and parcel of the “Old Guard” running things that I discussed above. BUT there are some really cool things happening in wrestling now too. I just urge people not to throw the baby out with the bath water.
Arturo: Russo still has a job because the people that employ him now and have employed him in the past feel the same way he does about those issues. They share his philosophy.
Posted 03 Sep 2008 at 3:51 pm ¶
Fatemeh wrote:
Shae, thanks for your insider insight.
I still don’t agree that using race caricatures or personas is an acceptable way to “advance a storyline” or whatever, no matter whether the person is or isn’t of that ethnicity.
And I have to agree with Juan that intent doesn’t have a lot of weight when the end result is the furthering of harmful stereotypes.
While I know wrestling isn’t out the change the world, and it’s not the source of these harmful stereotypes, it would be best if wrestling didn’t add to the harm.
Posted 03 Sep 2008 at 3:51 pm ¶
Fatemeh wrote:
Oh, and I major heart The Rock. Because he’s got one hell of a beautiful smile!
Posted 03 Sep 2008 at 3:52 pm ¶
Danny wrote:
Not to excuse Killings’ gimmick, but isn’t part of the reason behind the dancing his moonlighting as a hip-hop artist? I always got the sense he was trying to cross-brand himself.
True. In fact if I’m not mistaken he has performed and recorded all of the theme songs that he has used in his wrestling career.
A few other talents comes to mind. Curry Man, who is being passed off as a masked Japanese wrestler but is actually a white man. Festus, a large white guys whose character plays heavy on the “dumb hick” stereotype (in fact his nickname is “The Cornfed Collosus”).
Juan:
Intent doesn’t mean squat when the end result is wrong.
I’ve not always agreed with that. Intent often means the difference between seeing the light after being checked once or trying to defend -ist comments to your grave.
Posted 03 Sep 2008 at 7:31 pm ¶
Angel H. wrote:
Yeeeah. That’s the same excuse Michael Richards, Isaiah Washington, and the blackface fratboys also used.
Posted 03 Sep 2008 at 9:24 pm ¶
glass28 wrote:
I’ve been watching wrestling for as long as I can remember, and it’s always been a challenge trying to reconcile my love for it with my attempts to be an effective ally. There is absolutely no doubt that wrestling is one of the most blatantly racist/sexist/hetero normative/gender normative things on TV every week. Emphasis on the blatantly, wrestling stands out from the rest of the messed up stuff out there because of the conscious use of racist and sexist ect. humor, gimmicks and storylines. In other words, we notice it more because it’s as over the top as everything else in sports entertainment.
A lot of people have made good points in these comments, both about how disgusting many things have been in the industry and also about trying to understand wrestling in context. I guess I don’t have much to add on that front, except that I think a lot of wrestling fans aren’t as critical as they could be of what they see in and out of the ring.
Someone mentioned the recent suspension of Michael Hayes and I wanted to add a word or two to that. Hayes is the head writer of WWE’s weekly show Friday Night Smackdown. This is significant because it’s a position with a lot of power behind the scenes. After the incident in which he threw the N word at Mark Henry, Hayes was suspended for 60 days without pay, as mentioned above, sent to sensitivity training, told he could no longer drink while on tour and then returned to work, wielding the same amount of power as before. Henry was sent off to the Tuesday Night ECW show where he quickly became Heavyweight Champion (arguably the top spot on any show) and given the legendary Tony Atlas, the individual mentioned above as playing the Saba Simba character, as a manager. In response, there has been some rumbling that he played the race card to move himself forward in the company. Personally, I think the situation has only been resolved superficially, Hayes is still in charge of the careers of a number of wrestlers of color, some of whom are very talented but still give way to white wrestlers, and now Henry is starting to get some heat in terms of people questioning whether or not he deserves his current spot on the roster.
Also, The Rock is/was awesome, but it’s important to acknowledge that his rise to fame is just as tainted with horrible identity politics as anything else in wrestling. He began to receive attention when, after an unsuccessful debut as a good guy, he joined the Nation of Domination (a bad guy stable or team meant to evoke both the Nation of Islam and the Black Panthers) and took part in the Gang Wars angle. One of the most racist wrestling storylines in WWE history, Gang Wars involved the Nation of Domination feuding with a team of Latino wrestlers (Los Boricuas) and a team of white bikers called the Disciples of Apocalypse in a series of matches meant to resemble street fights. He then took control of the group, which thankfully shed it’s derogatory references to black power and entered a feud with Degeneration X. This feud is most often remembered for a promo that involved the DX members coming to the ring dressed as the Nation, including DXer X-Pac wearing black face to portray Mark Henry. But it’s also important to recognize The Rock’s rising popularity during this time involved him making increasingly sexist and gender normative jokes, frequetly aimed at DX’s female bodyguard, Chyna (whose muscled physique made her the but of frequent jokes questioning her gender). After this angle The Rock really became the main event level talent we know today, and certainly one of the most successful wrestlers of color in history. But, it’s important to recognize that he attained and maintained this popularity largely through his humorous and charismatic promos which continued to involve a lot of sexist and hetero normative jokes, something he shared with his white rival Triple H (although The Game threw in the occasional racial joke for good measure). One of the major legacies of this time is the continued use of blatantly sexist (occasionally misogynistic) and hetero normative humor in pro wrestling. John Cena is a notable example of this. So, the point is, that as cool as the Rock is, he not only suffered through the horrible identity politics of wrestling, he eventually adopted a gimmick that actively perpetuated them. Don’t get me wrong, I love The Rock, I love his performances and his charm and his ring work, but it’s important to recognize his complicity in the legacy of chauvinism and homophobia in wrestling.
Whew, my last point is that I wanted to say that racism, sexism ect. in wrestling isn’t a reason to stop watching, it’s a reason to pay attention and be critical. Deconstructing these trends in wrestling, because they’re so blatant, is a great way to understand how more subtle media manifestations of these things play out in other areas of popular culture. It seems to me that people often use their anti-racist stances as an excuse to tune out, when they really should be tuning in. Pop culture in all it’s forms isn’t going anywhere, it’s growing, and it’s the primary way in which we educate ourselves and attempt to reach cultural consensus in the modern world. I tend to believe that it’s important to take part in it, watch it, but watch it critically and comment on it as Fatemeh has done here (one of the reasons I love Racialicious in general). I love wrestling, there’s nothing else like it in the world, but I’m thoroughly disgusted by the chauvinism and racism the runs wild (whatchu gonna do?) through it, and I’m certainly aware of the fact that if wrestling doesn’t develop a critical fanbase some of whom may become critical wrestlers, announcers and promoters, it will continue to teach it’s viewers the horrible identity politics it has been since before I was born. I want to watch wrestling with my kids someday, but I don’t want them to watch the screwed up product I watch today.
Posted 03 Sep 2008 at 10:10 pm ¶
Danny wrote:
Yeeeah. That’s the same excuse Michael Richards, Isaiah Washington, and the blackface fratboys also used.
And that is why I didn’t say “always”. There is an honest mistake or there is blatant disregard for the people you insult. Do both really deserve to be treated the same?
Posted 03 Sep 2008 at 10:57 pm ¶
Arturo wrote:
Danny,
Curry Man, as I recall, was actually conceived and debuted by the wrestler in question — I know who, but I will ‘protect the business’ in this instance — while working in Japan, so I can’t fault him for that. However, I’m not so keen on the attempt at an accent he’s been putting on lately.
Posted 03 Sep 2008 at 10:59 pm ¶
Thea Lim wrote:
glass28’s comment reminded me of the fact that Bret “The Hitman” Hart’s autobiography came out earlier this year.
One of the quotes of the promo had something interesting to say about wrestling and masculinity:
(says Bret:)
“…but I also saw the good side of pro wrestling. To me there is something bordering on beautiful about a brotherhood of big tough men who pretended to hurt one another for a living instead of actually doing it. Any idiot can hurt someone.”
Hm.
http://www.amazon.ca/Hitman-Real-Cartoon-World-Wrestling/dp/0307355667/ref=pd_ys_ir_all_fb_14/702-9685586-8772060
Posted 03 Sep 2008 at 11:08 pm ¶
Whitney wrote:
I seriously have no words. I just don’t get it.
In regards to Lifetime, I find their movies about teenage sex and pregnancy absolutely hilarious.
TNA Impact! …. not so much.
Posted 04 Sep 2008 at 1:39 am ¶
Whitney wrote:
And to add, just because it might be this woman’s “gimmick” doesn’t excuse it or take away from the fact that it’s a racist. Could she adopt another character that isn’t a jab towards Arabic and Muslim women?
Posted 04 Sep 2008 at 1:41 am ¶
Angel H. wrote:
I’ve got a better question: Where does one draw the line? Or for that matter, why should one?
Posted 04 Sep 2008 at 7:24 am ¶
Reiter wrote:
I remember the ol’ days of the Iron Sheik (the whole anti-Iran thing) and Nikolai Volkoff (the whole anti-Russia thing), and GLOW (Glamorous Ladies of Wrestling, an excuse in eye candy if I ever saw one as a kid). I also remember worshipping Superfly Jimmy Snuka and Ricky the Dragon Steamboat too. Ah, to watch wrestling without seeing color and racism through youthful eyes. I vaguely recall an Asian cowboy wrestler in the WWE circuit a few months/years back too. At the time I thought that was an awfully strange gimmick.
Posted 04 Sep 2008 at 9:24 am ¶
Danny wrote:
Curry Man, as I recall, was actually conceived and debuted by the wrestler in question — I know who, but I will ‘protect the business’ in this instance — while working in Japan, so I can’t fault him for that. However, I’m not so keen on the attempt at an accent he’s been putting on lately.
When Curry Man first appeared he for a short while he actually was speaking Japanese. I didn’t mean to say he’s been doing that recently, in fact I haven’t watched him much lately because I have no interest in him.
Could she adopt another character that isn’t a jab towards Arabic and Muslim women?
Agreed. Even if they needed to mask her they could have come up with another idea to do it.
I’ve got a better question: Where does one draw the line? Or for that matter, why should one?
Just like any offense there is a difference between someone that set right the first time and a life time offender.
Posted 05 Sep 2008 at 12:28 am ¶
Angel H. wrote:
And that brings me back to my original point: Michael Richards, Isaiah Thomas, et al all claimed they didn’t have an offensive bone in their bodies; that it they have black, latino, and gay friends; that it was just a mistake, unintentional, and “just slipped out”. Again, how can one differentiate between those self-proclaimed first-timers and the lifetime offenders, and why should one when the impact of what they did, despite their “intentions”, has the same results?
Posted 05 Sep 2008 at 1:54 pm ¶
Danny wrote:
Again, how can one differentiate between those self-proclaimed first-timers and the lifetime offenders, and why should one when the impact of what they did, despite their “intentions”, has the same results?
Because it would make the difference between a person who acknowledges that they did something wrong, owns up to, and possibly become an ally to the cause.
Take feminsm for example. When a guy is called on exercising his male privilege he may either see the light and become a feminist himself after further discovery or you may find out that he is truly a sexist jerk that is beyond help. If he sees the light and tries to embrace feminism is it really really fair hang that past exercise of male privilege over his head forever?
Posted 08 Sep 2008 at 11:07 am ¶
Angel H. wrote:
Danny, I feel as though we’re both going in circles so this is my last post on the matter:
Your argument that sometimes a person’s intent when they commited a racist act (Ms. Anderson’s portrayal of a muslim woman)should have some bearing in relation to the impact. “Intent often means the difference between seeing the light after being checked once or trying to defend -ist comments to your grave.” It tossed out examples such as Michael Richards and Isaiah Washington, who both claimed that they never meant to hurt anybody, that they’re not racist/homophobic, etc. You stated that first-time offenders should be given some consideration; I claimed that both Richards and Washington stated that this was their first time offense. Your statement:
I do agree with that, however, how far should an “offender” have to go before his slate is cleared? To go back to my examples, Richards pleaded for understanding before Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, Washington has done PSAs promoting LGBT tolerance. Should we take their claims of sincerity at face value, or should we remain a bit cynical that, after the cameras stop rolling, they’ll return to their old selves. Frankly, I’m not sure.
Also, Ms. Anderson has not made any such attempts to rectify her actions. She’s still making money on her character Raisha Saiid by playing up to Islamophobic fears and orientalist exocitism. (<– am I making any sense here? ;P )
Like I said, this is my last post on the matter, but I hope you respond.
Take care Danny, and best wishes.
Posted 10 Sep 2008 at 9:58 am ¶
E.J. Craig wrote:
I want to add my 2 cents into something I’ve taken notice to in wrestling that seriously pisses me off as a life long fan. It’s bad enough that for many years Black wrestler’s have been getting buried from what many insiders claim is from poor audience responce toward’s particular Black wrestler’s. Let’s use MVP (Montel Vontavious Porter) a wrestling character portrayed by Alvin Burke Jr. on the WWE’s
Smackdown brand. Now a lot of Black people
can relate to his character which he portray’s an arrogant, self absorbed, wanna be athelete, with an ego problem bigger than
Vince Mc Mahon’s. MVP is actually my favorite WWE wrestler currently. He is a heel
(bad guy) wrestler who is good on the mic, he is very hiliarious, he know’s how to sell himself to the fan’s, he’s got decent wrestling skill’s, and he even has his own talk show segment called MVP’s V.I.P. lounge where he interview’s other wrestler’s. MVP is also one of the longest reigning United States Champions in wrestling history. Shorty after Summer Slam 2008 (a WWE pay-per-view
event) according to online wrestling news sources MVP apparently got into an altercation backstage (behind the scenes) with a urine test technician who insulted MVP first by saying something really stupid to him in a fashion that was threatening and trying to punk him out for real (I can’t remember what was said)! The WWE decide’s to punish MVP which is chicken shit for an altercation they have no proof that he started but going soley on what some urine test technician complained about and now they’ve had him jobbing (it’s a wrestling term for losing matches) for several weeks now destroying his character, minimizing his markability, and making the fans perceive him as an even bigger joke in the wrestling industry than ever before! I’m offended by this because the WWE did the exact same shit to Koko B. Ware (20 years earlier), Rodney Mack (who was never given any opportunity to show case his true talent and he was/is a Kurt Angle calibur performer), Elijah Burke (an amatuer pro boxer whose push to stardom got cut short), Orlando Jordan (had awesome talent but was fired by the WWE because he’s bisexual), Bobby Lashley (his reason’s for quitting the WWE is still somewhat a mystery but I know it had something to do with that racist bastard Michael Hayes), and one of my other personal favorites Ernest The Cat Miller who has tremendous talent, he was funny as hell, he could dance, his mic skills where awesome, he was made WCW commissioner at one point, and while in WCW he even had his own talk & dance segment called Cat-bo (a somewhat knock off of martial arts legend Billy Blanks Tae-bo). The fans really dug The Cat’s character but when the WCW went out of business and it was purchased by the WWE and when Ernest Miller was eventually brought in he was told by Vince Mc Mahon that they didn’t have nothing for him and released him (terminated him) from WWE after just having him do color commentating
after he explained to the WWE and Jim Ross
who he never liked by the way that he wasn’t too familiar with all of the wrestling moves and that color commentating wasn’t something he was interested in doing. There you have it, he was purposely shelved because it’s another Black man with a bunch of talent that they didn’t want getting too big again in the wrestling industry so they reduced his career into a wrestling foot note! But going back to MVP, apparently the WWE has invested a lot of money into his character. All one has to do is go onto the WWE’s website and go to shopzone and you’ll see that they have MVP T-shirt’s, MVP pendants (a necklace), MVP head band’s, and MVP wrist band’s. MVP also has his own character in WWE video game’s, a bunch action figure’s made in his likeness, and he also has a statuette figurine (from the WWE Unmatched Fury Series #10) that a lot of WWE supertars still don’t have made for themselves yet. For those who don’t know all of the WWE action figure’s are made by a California based toy company called Jakks Pacific. So my closing notes ladies & gentlemen on racism in wrestling is that it’s alive and well and how the WWE is systematically dissecting MVP is a prime example of the racism, the politics, and the bullshit that’s going on in the cartoon world of wrestling. MVP should be in the main event’s wrestling for the main 3 championship belt’s which are either the WWE championship, the World heavyweight
championship, or the ECW championship and not losing matches to brand new wrestler’s that haven’t got their feet wet yet,
low carders, and mid carder wrestling performers.
Posted 29 Nov 2008 at 2:51 pm ¶
E.J. Craig wrote:
Can somebody please tell me what’s wrong with these numbers? Are African American’s in the wrestling industry really being overlooked? You be the judge and take a look at some interesting numbers I’ve reseached. The WWE
has been in business for 56 years (since 1952) and has had their named changed 3 time’s now.
In it’s 56 years of operation the WWE has had the following number of Black’s or African descent’s with the following championship’s. Please take note that the number next to the championships are the number of Black’s that
has held that title;
WWE Champion’s- 1
WWE Word Heavyweight Champion’s- 1
WWE Intercontinental Champion’s- 7
WWE United States Champion’s- 5
ECW Champion’s- 2
WWE Cruiserweight Champion’s- 1
WWE European Champion’s- 2
WWE Hardcore Champion’s- 3
WWE Tag Team Champion’s (also includes world tag team champion’s)- 10
WWE Women’s Champion’s- 2
WWE Diva’s Champion’s- None
Now all of these wrestlers were champions after 1996. This is from a company (WWE) that’s been well established since 1952. Now
let’s look at TNA. TNA has been in operation
for 6 years now (since 2002) and technically
had a slight name change when they dropped
the NWA name from TNA after the two companies parted way’s from each other. In
TNA’s 6 short years they have had the following Black’s or African descent’s as champion’s;
TNA World Heavyweight Champion’s (NWA-TNA Champion’s included)- 1
TNA X-Division Champion’s- 1
TNA Women’s Champion’s- 1
TNA Tag Team Champion’s (NWA-TNA tag team champion’s included)- 4
TNA Legends Champion’s- 1
As I’ve stated before that racism is alive and well in wrestling and WWE’s piss poor and beyond pathetic number of Black champion’s over the years is just completely inexcusable
and it really bug’s me when a lot of dumb ass
programmed wrestling fan’s (mostly White’s that I have debated with over the years no
offence) can’t see that this isn’t right the way Black’s have gotten screwed over! The Wrestlemania 19 match with Booker T. VS.
Triple H for the WWE world heavyweight
championship and Booker T. losing the way
they made him lose by far had to be the biggest
slap in the face to people of color everywhere
especially with how racist the whole wrestling
angle and storyline was going into Wrestlemania 19. I hope people out there reading this blog take note of this.
Posted 30 Nov 2008 at 4:39 am ¶