As mentioned in some of my previous writing, wrestling does not happen in a vacuum. Wrestling, including the companies, promoters, and talent, are all affected by what is happening in their environment. And as much as some people refuse to see it, this includes racism and the various ways in which it shows up. From overt things like slurs and physical assaults to the more insidious things like gatekeeping and respectability politics, racism is very present in our wrestling world.
Much of the racism that both fans and wrestlers experience within the community is by way of gatekeeping. This can be done intentionally such as a promotion not booking a black wrestler because they “already have a black wrestler” or more passively by only focusing on and validating only a specific demographic of fans, ie white men ages 15-40. While the first one still happens, the latter is a lot more popular. Several unfortunately famous wrestling media personalities have mentioned that black wrestlers aren’t as marketable to the demo and they don’t connect with fans. And to be honest, both of those statements are blatantly false and steeped in racism because it invalidates entire groups of fans.
When Naomi returned at the 2020 Royal Rumble, videos and pictures of her glowtastic outfits and beautiful natural hair trended for several days. When Kofi Kingston won the top title in the WWE in 2019, the internet exploded with many black fans finally feeling seen. Big Swole is one of the most popular talents in AEW despite only regularly appearing on Dark aside from a few short segments on Dynamite. Clearly these wrestlers are marketable and clearly they are making connections. But somehow they aren’t deserving of full pushes or lengthy title reigns. And somehow the black veterans in the business feel the need to put down the younger talent instead of uplifting their voices and helping to break down the barriers.
Respectability politics also comes into play a lot of the time. A lot of fans like to look to the older black wrestlers’ success as a way to derail any talks of racism in the business. But many of those wrestlers’ white counterparts enjoyed more titles, longer reigns, and more general protection in the business. The Nation of Domination, a stable of black wrestlers protesting injustice, was considered a heel stable. Protesting injustice…got heat. And now that today’s black wrestlers are vocal about the discrimination they face, it seems like everyone wants to dissect the way that the message is delivered rather than absorb the information being presented. It’s always “They’re too angry!” or “I feel like I’m being attacked.” rather than just listening. Also the cries of “don’t cyberbully” don’t seem to apply to black wrestlers. Everyone jumped to Alexa Bliss’s defense when some podcaster made a comment about her sexuality but no one came to Sasha Banks or Naomi’s defense when they were being slandered all over the Internet.
So now that a black wrestler is connecting with the audience and maintaining a “professional” attitude, they can get the same treatment as their white counterparts…right? Nope! Because even if you tick all the boxes, the goal posts still get moved. Now the person is doing too many flips or being too mean as a heel or wearing too much make or…whatever is the next item on the ever-growing list. It’s exhausting for both black wrestlers and black fans. You can’t give someone instructions on how to play the game and then constantly change the rules.
Being black in the wrestling can get overwhelming. Everyone wants our money but no one wants to validate us as fans. And to some degree, I understand. You don’t want to lose the core audience which has kept the business going for decades. But at the same time, you can’t continue to ignore and demean an entire demographic and expect them to play nice. It’s time to leave that old school mentality behind and embrace the change.
