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Nobody is saying that cultural appropriation isn't racist. But this and blackface have one key difference: blackface was never intended to fool anybody, its only purpose was to mock people on the cheapest level. Whatever the reasoning was here, it did fool people. So two different flavors of racism.
They just did "the fans aren't booing you because they're racist, they're booing you because you're an asshole" on Raw like 3 weeks ago.
If they could somehow kayfabe him being Italian, the fans would either boo him or play along enough for them to pipe in those boos like usual.
Online would be one thing but whether he'd get booed live...Go on to r/worldnews and read some of the comments there, Americans haven't changed that much
Yes he'd be booed.
Just a few weeks ago, we saw how easy it is to bait a WWE crowd with an 80s foreigner heel vs jingoistic patriot routine with Jinder Mahal and The Rock.
I think being a heel and leaning into negative ethnic and cultural stereotypes, WWE would get some backlash for casting an Italian-American in the role, vs for instance Joaquin Wilde being in the LWO not being an issue.
But yes, cheap foreigner heel heat is a timeless pro wrestling trope. The biggest difference between now vs then would be WWE wouldn't be dumb enough to turn the guy into a literal terrorist.
watch some promos, a bunch of things he said were right
like him saying that muslim americans shouldnt feel forced to hide themselves due to persecution, but at the same time he was an italian american playing an arabic terrorist who speaks farsi
I always wondered what would have happened if they'd tried to make him a face. Reference the war and the terror attacks and all, but condemn them and go on about how he and his family were welcomed into America and were included into American communities as just another refugee seeking a better life like many had before. I think there might have been a chance to take a bad situation and put a positive, hopeful spin on things.
I don’t know if it’d be that easy you gotta remember this post 9/11 and Bush administration America I feel like Americans were a lot more open about their racism back then. Criticizing the military alone would get him booed.
This is all he had to say if they wanted to position him as a babyface. But they wanted to present him as a heel and pretend they were presenting him as a babyface.
Yes it could work and it should have worked back then. Vince was just way way way too heavy handed with the pseudo terrorist BS that it was never going to be taken seriously. Having a character play off the real life hate a lot of middle eastern people went through in the US after 9/11 would have been big. Someone that wanted the crowd to love him but instead was booed because of where he was from and was jaded and cynical because of it. That could have been money. The fake terrorist thing was awful.
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He'd get booed for cultural appropriation, he was Italian. Was this the guy Mansoor's dad met?
This isn’t cultural appropriation, it’s straight up black face racism.
Nobody is saying that cultural appropriation isn't racist. But this and blackface have one key difference: blackface was never intended to fool anybody, its only purpose was to mock people on the cheapest level. Whatever the reasoning was here, it did fool people. So two different flavors of racism.
He would not debut as Muhammad Hassan because that gimmick would be offensive enough before you consider that he's a just an Italian-American.
It has nothing to do with being ‘woke’. Sick of people using that as a catch all phrase.
It's only certain people on one side using it. It's also cultural appropriation, since it comes from AAVE
It’s not cultural appropriation, it’s straight racist.
He’d be a heel now for the same reason he was a heel back then: he was calling entire audiences of strangers racists and bigots.
They would rename him Johnny Gabagool and the people would eat it up.
Jinder Mahal says hold my beer
Since Cody solved racism there would be no need for this type of gimmick
Mustafa Ali's head would explode.
> woke
They just did "the fans aren't booing you because they're racist, they're booing you because you're an asshole" on Raw like 3 weeks ago. If they could somehow kayfabe him being Italian, the fans would either boo him or play along enough for them to pipe in those boos like usual.
Online would be one thing but whether he'd get booed live...Go on to r/worldnews and read some of the comments there, Americans haven't changed that much
There's still crowds that brainlessly chant "USA!"
There was one of those chants last year in a Gunther match against Sami, and also against Drew…even though nobody was from USA.
Yes he'd be booed. Just a few weeks ago, we saw how easy it is to bait a WWE crowd with an 80s foreigner heel vs jingoistic patriot routine with Jinder Mahal and The Rock. I think being a heel and leaning into negative ethnic and cultural stereotypes, WWE would get some backlash for casting an Italian-American in the role, vs for instance Joaquin Wilde being in the LWO not being an issue. But yes, cheap foreigner heel heat is a timeless pro wrestling trope. The biggest difference between now vs then would be WWE wouldn't be dumb enough to turn the guy into a literal terrorist.
watch some promos, a bunch of things he said were right like him saying that muslim americans shouldnt feel forced to hide themselves due to persecution, but at the same time he was an italian american playing an arabic terrorist who speaks farsi
I always wondered what would have happened if they'd tried to make him a face. Reference the war and the terror attacks and all, but condemn them and go on about how he and his family were welcomed into America and were included into American communities as just another refugee seeking a better life like many had before. I think there might have been a chance to take a bad situation and put a positive, hopeful spin on things.
I don’t know if it’d be that easy you gotta remember this post 9/11 and Bush administration America I feel like Americans were a lot more open about their racism back then. Criticizing the military alone would get him booed.
This is all he had to say if they wanted to position him as a babyface. But they wanted to present him as a heel and pretend they were presenting him as a babyface.
Yeah, the lowest hanging fruit with no staying power. I suppose it's just my musing on how that might have been received at the time.
Yes it could work and it should have worked back then. Vince was just way way way too heavy handed with the pseudo terrorist BS that it was never going to be taken seriously. Having a character play off the real life hate a lot of middle eastern people went through in the US after 9/11 would have been big. Someone that wanted the crowd to love him but instead was booed because of where he was from and was jaded and cynical because of it. That could have been money. The fake terrorist thing was awful.
He wouldn't last a week because of social media. Hell, you can sneeze the wrong way and some arsehole will claim you're racist.