Paying Hardtime On The 16th Stop To Rome; The Racism Revelation In Wrestling
(Note: This was a column that was written as a collective effort by myself and two more respected columnists of the IWC. These columnists write under the screen names of of Romans 3:23 and and The Letter P. This column has been modified to be written in the first person.)
In 1992, over ten-thousand people flooded the streets of Los Angeles in a violent and mutinous display of protest that videos on news reports would burn into the memories of millions of Americans. During the previous calendar year, Rodney King, an African American, had been arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department. After leading law enforcement on a high speed chase, King was physically reprimanded by police officers who were considered by many to be using excessive violence in the arrest. Video footage of the event showed that King was indeed resisting arrest in a physical manner, but the justification of the extent of the officers’ actions was widely questionable.
To some, it was merely the police using unreasonable measures to do their job, and nothing more. To many, it was an instance of the L.A.P.D. using racial profiling in the duties of a public service job. When the police officers were acquitted in ‘92, near uncontrollable riots broke out through the city of angels. For 6 long days there were men being dragged out of cars and beaten to bloody messes, businesses being robbed, buildings being defaced, and other acts of unruly behavior as part of a massive wave of emotionally charged devastation swept the area. Near anarchy ran rampant through the city, because of what was believed to be an act of racism.
The photo shown above depicts the depth of the emotions that were touched with Los Angeles citizens and the destruction that ensued. The rioters had a statement to make, and whether or not they made that statement in the appropriate manner, the building going up in flames in that picture will tell you that they did not take the officers’ acquittal lightly. Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation to free the slaves of Confederate States 130 years prior to this incident. And in spite of this and many other major actions taken to promote equality, racist attitudes have still been prevalent through the years, as can be seen by the mere existence of laws that said blacks could not attend the same schools as whites, a Negro League for black baseball players, and even segregated public rest rooms. With the Rodney King incident, it was questionable how much widespread progress has been made in America regarding this issue as recently as 15 years ago.
With current public figures such as Don Imus making inappropriate comments towards African Americans, progress to the point of where we should be can still be in doubt to this very day. While it is unrealistic to believe that this issue is ever going to go away completely, I believe that the accusations and informal allegations towards one particular major corporation have always been unjustified. The corporation has always been, at least on a professional level, abiding not by a principle that says whites are greater than blacks, or that minorities need to be given token success to erase bad public relations, but by a belief that good business is not based on skin color, and to a degree has unintentionally acted out a multiple year modern day retelling of a story over two thousand years old.
And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" He said to him, "What is written in the Law? How do you read it?" And he answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." And he said to him, "You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live."
But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, 'Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.' Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?" He said, "The one who showed him mercy." And Jesus said to him, "You go, and do likewise."
- Luke 10:25-37
Luke, a doctor and generally nice guy by trade, instructs his reader by recording into his gospel this scene in which a lawyer asks Jesus what he needs to do to have eternal life. Jesus answers the lawyer by asking him to interpret the law to discover the criteria. Loving God and neighbor is the lawyer’s response, and Jesus concurs with his assessment. Then the lawyer asks Jesus another question, “Who is my neighbor?†and Jesus responds with a story. This story is the crux (which means the point) of the whole scene, and through it, Jesus gives the lawyer an unexpected answer, which critiques the racist tendencies that developed in Israel at that time.
Life is a waterfall,
We're one in the river,
And one again after the fall… …
Whether it be the issue of Jackie Robinson playing in a predominantly white man’s game, the realistic possibility of an African American being elected as the U.S. President in 2008, Jesus’ story about the kind Samaritan also has bearing on many different types of issues throughout history. Namely, the message to rest up at The Road House when traveling alone. While there are many critics who want to say that World Wrestling Entertainment has been racist over the years, and while it can not be proven that they are not guilty of this, we are here to tell you that Vince McMahon’s business and product decisions have most likely not been inspired or based off of any racially charged ill will.
Selling Hulk Hogan bandanas and Shawn Michaels baseball caps was certainly not his symbolic way of selling pointy white hats. In a way, Vince has actually been the director of what is, unbeknownst to him, a reenactment of the aforementioned biblical passage. People can point the finger at the lack of minority champions, wrestlers portraying negative stereotypes associated with minorities and what ever else that they feel so inclined to. But at the end of the day, Vinny Mac doesn’t care about demeaning people because of the color of their skin, but about the money that goes into his bank account. Whether you pay $20 for a John Cena t-shirt, $20 for a full size poster of Bobby Lashley or $20 for a set of Diva underwear, complete with Randy Orton ‘spit’ molecules - that faded piece of paper with Andrew Jackson’s picture buys him the same meal of linguini and clam sauce at one of Connecticut’s finest restaurants. Why Vince doesn’t instead choose a spamwich that some 12 year old McDonalds employ spat in, however, is beyond me.
Jesus’ story about the Samaritan followed a structure typical of the times, but he ended it with a twist as epic as that of the movie “Sawâ€. The Israelite, after hearing first of a priest, then of a Levite, would expect next the appearance of a lay Israelite, who would do right to the injured man on… the road. But Jesus flips the proverbial script on the lawyer, and instead makes a hated Samaritan the hero of the story.
At that time, the Samaritans, a people of mixed origin who partially adopted elements of Jewish worship (one glaring difference was that they worshipped at Mount Gerazin and not Jerusalem, history lessons are always good) were despised by the Jews. By making the Samaritan the hero, Jesus effectively rebukes Israel’s growing notion that their status with God hinged upon their heritage, ancestry or works of the Law. Israel was guilty of forgetting that the origin of God’s relationship with them was God’s sovereign choice, which conforms to his will alone. Jesus makes the Samaritan his standard bearer and commands the Israelite lawyer to recognize the one he hates as his neighbor.
In similar, but not exactly parallel fashion, Vince McMahon has flipped the script and made minorities the “heroes†(not that God awful television show, mind you) of his stories. Despite not making a critique of the culture, if anything, wrestling merely reflects the dominant cultural leanings at best and panders to them at worst. Vince over the years has proven that he is willing to embrace wrestlers who are not of the majority race in the culture.
Admittedly, there have been WWE characters that do nothing but further stereotypes, such as Saba Simba and Cryme Time, and for that, Vince McMahon has indeed done wrong. But, as we previously stated, this has been simply because it is good for business. Not because of any ill feelings towards a particular race.
Besides, there also have been strong minority wrestlers who have broken the mold of stereotypes to become champions, or “heroes†such as the Rock, Eddie Guerrero and King Booker. These men became champions not because of, nor despite, their skin color or nationality, but because Vince chose them as his standard bearers above all others in WWE at a particular time. Vince proves by this selecting that he harbors no bias against wrestlers of a color different than his own, but that he mirrors the direction of the culture, which is coming around to recognize the insidiousness of racism.
Characters such as Kaienti in fact do seem to help the prosecution of WWE with regards to issues of race discrimination. Even going back no further than 1991, you can see that elements of the product containing racial, national, and ethnic stereotypes have been used because it is believed to do good business for the company. It’s understandable, but not acceptable, to want to cash in on a heightened sense of national pride and general misconceptions stemming from current events such as the Persian Gulf War. Yes, characters such as Jimmy Wang Yang and Muhummad Hassan do encourage people to look with a negative light about people of other races and cultures.
And no, it is not right. While Vince McMahon knows that full well, he is doing it because of the money to be made, and not to get out some type of message. Perry Saturn had been given a ludicrous gimmick in WWE in that he said strange, stupid things, simply because he had trouble getting over. Jimmy Wang Yang was probably seen to have the same potential, and thus a strange gimmick was placed on him. They thought he could play that role well, so he got it. It's not right, but Vince wasn't trying to make Asians feel like they had less dignity, either.
The Ku Klux Klan is adamant about calling their cross burnings “cross lightings†to make it seem more of a positive action and act as if they are symbolizing the light of Christ in the world. Whether you are religious or not, you know that this terminology is utter nonsense (or if you don’t, I really don’t like you), and I am telling youi that the argument I am making about Vince is not the same type of argument. Since Vince took over in the mid 80’s, when has he ever incorporated a storyline or character where he was purposely trying to convey some kind of deep, meaningful, important message that was contradictory to the way the majority of viewers thought at the time?
This is not referring to taking a former star of a rival promotion and making him dance and wear yellow polka dots just to embarrass him, or all the controversial aspects from the Attitude era that Parental Control groups hated. I'm talking something deep, along the lines of money being the source of real happiness, or that sexism is a good thing. He hasn’t tried to change the way people live in society on a profound level simply for the sake of being the next Socrates, Ayn Rand or free hug guy on Oprah. He has financially taken advantage of people in negative ways, but what he has done was never done in order to manipulate people’s minds. Besides bad public relations, it’s a non issue with him. I’ve portrayed Vince as a figure similar to The Good Samaritan in this column, but also take into consideration that there is no one who has never done anything wrong in their life. I'm probably the closest and even I've done some messed up stuff. McMahon should take blame for what he has done, but what he has done should not be exaggerated, and he should get credit where credit is due.
…Life is a waterfall,
We drink from the river,
Then we turn around and put up our walls…
While God’s electing choice involves his choosing those who belong to Christ, Vince’s choosing of a champion involves his picking a wrestler that he believes will best grow and represent his business at a particular time - or who’s first name is John. Vince sees only one color when it comes to running his business – green, and a wrestler’s skin tone does not enter into the equation. The Rock was made champion because he truly was the most electrifying man in sports entertainment. Eddie was made champion because of his impeccable in ring ability, lovable personality and the fact Brock Lesnar had already destroyed the rest of Smackdown!’s main event scene.
King Booker has breathed new life into a gimmick, the “King of Wrestling,†that white wrestlers have stereotypically played in the past. Through perseverance, a new level of drawing power, being surrounded by the right circumstances and his being so damn awesome, he has become World Champion in WWE, overcoming what is, in our opinion, a greater obstacle than race; his being a homegrown and devoutly loyal WCW talent. Look no further than what happened to the likes of Diamond Dallas Page and Kanyon upon entering the WWE for proof of that and they were as white as we all wish Cena would act.
Vince McMahon has seen many minority wrestlers who were lying beside the road, and unlike the Samaritan who embraced the man in Jesus’ story, people criticize Vince as being more like the priest and the Levite who refused to help him by pointing out his refusal to give World Title reigns to seemingly deserving minorities. But each time someone wants to take a Hulk Hogan foam finger and point to how Ricky Steamboat never got the title, before taking said foam finger and beating Hogan’s leathery ass with it of course, or how Booker T had to wait five years before becoming champion, there is usually some justifiable reason as to why they didn’t get the big gold.
Ricky Steamboat, arguably the greatest pure wrestler of his era, had asked for time off during his big push after defeating Macho Man at Wrestlemania 3 to be with his wife and soon to be new born child, and management saw this as a slap in the face and a kick in the crotch. Thus little Ricky never got a big push again (they can be so cruel). Kamala struck fear into many fans who didn’t know the real deal about wrestling back then (that it is, in fact, not real), but Hogan was the golden goose of WWE in the eighties, and Savage was understandably a better choice to keep his egg warm for a year (if you’re more mature than a 12 year old you won't laugh at that).
A man who was lying beside the same road as Steamboat and Kamala was the powerful and athletic Ahmed Johnson. Ahmed had a big following as a mid carder, but he was notorious with other wrestlers as being a sloppy worker. Consider that with the fact that he would have had to beat out guys like Diesel, Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels during the height of his own popularity, racism looks more like a poor excuse than a valid accusation.
Scott Hall, regardless of his actual race, played a very convincing Hispanic. He too had a big following for a mid carder, and even if his known drug and alcohol problems and immature backstage behavior had not yet began back then (although he was suspended for drug use near the very end of his initial run), there were simply other guys who made better candidates to represent the company on that level. Hitman, Yokozuna, Diesel, and Shawn Michaels were understandably better in Vince’s eyes. Whether you like those guys or not, you have to look at the facts of the situation. You had two of the best in-ring wrestlers of all time, a 7 foot muscular man, and a 600 lb. man (who was a minority himself).
These minorites were not merely men who were purposely ignored by a 20th century role reversed Samaritan in Vince McMahon, but rather men who simply could not be helped due to the fact that the Samaritan could only lend a hand to one individual at a time, and there were others who more urgently should have been fully embraced.
Of course, that same road the Samaritan lay helpless on still continues today. Or is it our simile that still continues? Whichever, the point is the likes of Shelton Benjamin and Super Crazy, who, despite being very talented individuals, are currently being buried in the seemingly bottomless pit that is that Raw mid card. In fact, they’re probably below the mid card at this point. But there are reasons for this and those reasons, I assure you, don’t have anything to do with their race.
The WWE tried pushing Shelton Benjamin. It seemed he was destined to be a future World champion. In fact, at one stage, he was the Intercontinental champion, while his white former tag team partner, Charlie Haas, was teaming up with Hardcore Holly on Velocity on a weekly basis. While people may not like it, facts are facts, and the fact is that Benjamin didn’t get over with the fans. Sure, the IWC may think Shelton is the greatest thing since Bret Hart, but the majority of the fans didn’t care about him. He’s uncharismatic and he isn’t good on the mic (at one stage they even had an obese woman talking for him in an effort to get him over!).
As for Super Crazy? Super Crazy is a cruiserweight. ’Nuff said. He’s not setting his matches on fire like Rey Mysterio has. There probably won’t be a Super Crazy dvd, but there won’t be any for Val Venis or Eugene, either. Just as there were reasons for minority wrestlers not becoming megastars ten years ago and ten years before that, those same reasons exist today. And none of them are to do with the color of their skin.
…Aerials, in the sky,
When you lose small mind,
You free your life…
In the time period in which Jesus lived, there were Pharisees, people known for being hypocrites who loved having a religious image but did not truly live what they preached, who would judge and accuse Jesus of doing things that were contradictory to what they believed to be morally just actions. While it was considered sacrilegious to work on the Sabbath, Jesus said that it was ok to do works of mercy and necessity on that day (not in those exact words, mind you). Throughout this, and other, passages in the bible, Jesus says that what will lead you to have a bad reputation among others may possibly be the right thing to do. Jesus doing necessary work on the Sabbath would have brought him the criticism of the Pharisees, just as Vince not giving minority wrestlers token roles in his company has brought on accusations of racism against him.
With regards to giving equal opportunities or lack there of, to whites and minorities, he has done just that. Paul Orndorf, Roddy Piper, Ted Dibiase, Mr. Perfect, Rick Rude, Davey Boy Smith, Lex Luger, Jake Roberts, King Kong Bundy, and Ken Shamrock could be considered people who deserved the title but didn’t get it. When Booker T lost at Wrestlemania 19, racism was cited by many as a huge factor. But he was up against Triple H, someone who reasonably would have done more with the title in upcoming months than Booker would have. It’s the same reason Piper never beat Hogan for the title, or Lex Luger didn’t walkout of Wrestlemania 10 as champion. Plus he as facing Triple H. Triple H!!
Had Booker T been given a WWE World Title years ago just to erase the notion of racism, it would have been a slap in the face to anyone, black or white, who has strived for racial equality (hold off on the Ron Simmons jokes, please). Racial equality means that a person won’t be denied opportunities because of the color of their skin. The other side of racial equality is that a person will not receive opportunities based on their skin color, either. You can’t have your cake and eat it too (you know, I never really understood that saying. What‘s the point of having a cake and not eating it?). Had Ahmed Johnson won the big strap just for good public relations, WWE would have been saying that black wrestlers can not earn as much success as white wrestlers abiding by the same standards.
I doubt any of you reading this would want to be given an MVP award (that may just be the greatest pun ever, don’t you agree?) when you and everyone else know that there are five other guys on your team who were better than you. You’d most likely want to wait until you have indeed honed your skills to the point of truly being the most valuable player, and want people to see you as someone who got an award he deserved.
If your coach gives you the game ball for scoring 4 points in a basketball game, it obviously shows he has low expectations for you, and while he may respect your hard work, he does not respect your ability as an athlete. Vince McMahon has refused to give out success for charity or any other reason than he thinks Wrestler A will do more for the company than Wrestler B… excluding the ever classic ‘you‘re doing my daughter’ level of reasoning of course. Simply being put on the same standard as everyone else is dignifying, and Vince does not take that away from anyone.
Now it is possible to make the claim that simply by having to argue that the WWE and Vince McMahon are not racist, the WWE must have committed racist acts or, at the very least, displayed racist tendencies. However, I'm the kind of guy that nullify a point before you can even raise it! Let’s take the example of the married business man who comes home reeking of cheap perfume late at night. His wife notices this and immediately accuses him of having an affair. Now sure, it’s possible he just arrived back from a 32 person, gang banging blood orgy, but it’s just as likely he was at the bar with his friends and their girlfriends and that’s where the mysterious scent came from.
Just because a person displays signs of a certain behavior, does not actually mean they committed any such act. Of course it can’t be proven that this is the case for the WWE, but it was never my intent to definitively prove the WWE isn’t racist. Look, I'll even quote myself to prove it: “While it can not be proven that they [Vince McMahon and his creative posse] are not guilty of this, we [the authors of this here column] are here to tell you that Vince McMahon’s business and product decisions have most likely not been inspired or based off of any racially charged ill will.†And to think, you didn’t believe me. Shame on you, I say!
After Hurricane Katrina, Kanye West famously quipped “George Bush doesn’t care about black people,†in response to the government’s handling of the situation. Many people would easily replace the name George Bush with Vince McMahon and echo the statement, but Vince resembles Jesus more in this situation than the president (I am so getting bombed with hateful feedback for that sentence). Vince has turned minorities into heroes, just as Jesus did a few millennia ago. Yes, Vince has basically sold out by allowing negative racial stereotypes in his product, but he did not do it out of unjust philosophical conviction, but rather to sell tickets.
But I am not here to tell you that the chairman of WWE is a perfect human being, he didn’t get to being a billionaire (or is it only millions these days?) by being the always last place finishing cliché ‘nice guy’ after all, and regardless of the wrong Vince has done, it does not change what he has done with promoting minorities as being able to be heroes. Vince’s motivation may be different than men such as Jesus and Martin Luther King, and with the exception of sometimes furthering stereotypes, his results are the same – an equal opportunity environment is achieved, and we are reminded that those who differ from us are our neighbors; neighbors who are worthy and able to do great things.
