As much as I try to view myself as a sophisticate, something always reminds me of the schlub I am. Thankfully, my uproarious laughter at the Three Stooges or screaming at professional wrestlers reminds me I am just a regular guy. The juxtaposition of wrestling, politics, civil rights, and human rights intersected for me recently. First, as a group, America is stuck in a swirl of conflating every issue as a political debate. I am sure—at some point, Abraham Lincoln blew his top hat at the folly of debating whether one human should own another human. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. must have restrained himself from reaching out to choke former Presidents Kennedy and Johnson telling him to wait to be considered a full person with all the rights and riches afforded others in our society.
The personal affronts and microaggressions people of color, like me, learn to endure are like traversing life on a steeple chase course; leaping and avoiding hazards becomes a part of life. Pro wrestling has always been full of racist stereotyping and living memes, but the choreographed matches avoided the illusion of politics for the most part. Although the “sport” has moved past the hard-skulled negro and warpath-dancing Indians, it still has problems with systemic racism that mirrors society. The current vogue is the feigned whooping savagery of Somoans and other Pacific Islanders.
Sean Morley is a now run-of-the-mill older wrestler who had his moment in the sun and is holding on for the next paycheck. The major wrestling organizations, WWE and AEW, put many more senior wrestlers to pasture. Morley is making a living on what is known as the independent circuit. They work in small gymnasiums, school auditoriums, outdoor fairs, etc. Some may remember his persona as Val Venis (sic), a porn star renowned for his sexual prowess and machismo. Morley—or Venis—is complaining that he cannot get work now because of his political view on the LGBTQIA+ community. Morley tweeted recently:
“Hello wrestling fans. Just a heads up. I will finish up obligations on my next 2 appearances(I wont say when or where until the day of as the LGBTQ+++XYZ nutjobs like to threaten promoters for booking me). As of today, I will no longer be taking any further public bookings for the forseeable future. Tired of being booked & then canceled due to my political positions. Thanks.”
People like Morley and the current GOP “originalists” fail to realize that the human rights and dignity of people different from them are not a political Irish Whip to be bounced off the ropes and bodyslammed. Society has been lulled into formulating every discussion as a political debate. The human rights of others are not up for debate. The problems lie with the holders of bigoted ideas, not politics. Slavery did not end because men debated the civil rights of the enslaved as a political question. It ended because a violent war was no longer tenable, formerly enslaved people reached their breaking point, and abolitionists won the debate on morality. Of course, the issue was much more complicated, but the idea that only politics drove the change is foolish.
The Native Americans did not lose their lives and rights because of politics; it was a fight for land and profits. The Japanese internment during World War II was not over politics; it was outsized fear, xenophobia, and racism. As in the past, Sean Morley feels his bigotry can live through the fisheye view of politics, where everything is distorted and oversized. Be careful of people who want to ban books but not equip teachers. Watch out when people tell you that voting needs to be fairly regulated but gerrymander(s) people of color out of participation. Take caution when people protest Drag Queen story hour but not against the guns that kill school kids. That mentality justified the genocide of the first Natives, slavery, Internment, and Jim Crow. None of those things were about politics; they were driven by avarice, fear, xenophobia, and racism, not politics.
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