WWE has had a tumultuous couple of years. From navigating the pandemic, facilitating a regime change through assault allegations and going forward with a merger that left the wrestling fandom shocked after Wrestlemania, the Big Top Circus has been through a lot privately and publicly.
On Wednesday, April 26th, 2023, another lawsuit became public via Bloomberg Law accusing multiple WWE executives and writers of allegedly “discriminating and retaliating against against a Black female writer for objecting to offensively racist and stereotypical jargon” used in scripts involving multiple athletes of color including Raw Women’s Champion Bianca Belair, Aliyah, Apollo Crews, SCRYPTS (formally known as Reggie), Mansoor and Angel Garza. According to the lawsuit, Britney Abrahams was a witness to many harmful story pitches involving the athletes.
One example involved Bianca Belair stating “Uh-Uh! Don’t make me take off my earrings and beat your ass!” and Aliyah being involved in a love story with Angel Garza and Mansoor, and that the latter would be behind the tragic September 11th, 2001, attacks and admit it to Aliyah.
As a budding host, writer and color commentator finding her voice, this news disappointed me. It feels like with every public win that people of color have in wrestling all over the world, there is always the system that was built by European men that seeks to hold us back. Black athletes are looked at by critics, fans, and pundits through a magnifying glass as they evolve every day, and for every victory and glass ceiling that they break, they are still viewed as disposable toys and not people of unique humanity. For every announcement of Black or People of Color staff writers, there is a story of them having a terrible time getting their ideas heard and respected. As I grow and hear stories like this, I wonder, “Is there truly a place for me and other people of color who want to make it to the highest level?”
I hate to even have to say this at this point, but it seems that it bears repeating: People of color are more than your backwards characterizations and stereotypes. Our lives matter and should be taken as seriously as any other person’s. We are not responsible for an individual’s decisions, and we cannot speak for all of us. Our lives are not monolithic.
In the year of 2023, a story centered around one of the greatest tragedies in world history should not be pitched in a freewheeling, joking manner, especially when one of your great women athletes suffered in her real life because of it. A story involving your longest reigning Black champion fighting and tearing her earrings off should not be an option when that woman comes from a long line of successful and history making Black men and women in the state of Tennessee. A woman of color who worked for years in NXT should not have a storyline that absolves her of her agency when it comes to an on-screen love affair. If those are the best stories that the writers can come up with, then they are not quite creative or original at all.
Diversity on paper or in public means absolutely nothing if you are not willing to create an environment for them to share their ideas. It is not lost on me that Ms. Abrahams may have been accused of wrongdoing at the backdrop of Bianca Belair and Mercedes Mone’ making history as the first Black women to main event at WrestleMania.
How can you display forward movement onscreen if you are drowning those same voices out when they tell you that there is a problem in the stories you give them? If this behavior continues, the best writers and minds will not have a fighting chance in the wrestling business. We give so much to this business because we love it, but how much does it love us? Will WWE truly value our voices if we make it there? If this lawsuit is any indication, there is STILL more fighting to do.
Comments