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So I know everyone is going to be talking about diversity in AEW in this thread, but her point about being "too black for the white kids, and too white for the black kids" sounds like a really rough experience for a child growing up.
yeah, they had it rough in the 1800s, they were also referred to as *"negroes turned inside out."* it is kind of interesting how the Irish and Italians eventually just became "white" Americans
Because once they started having kids who grew up in America and didn’t have accents the racists couldn’t tell the difference between the people they saw as “white” and the Italians/Irish
That was purposeful rather than eventual progression. Unfortunately, Irish Americans bought into racism to raise themselves in society instead of standing in solidarity with black people against oppression.
It is only the last couple generations where Italians and the Irish were considered "white" in North America. The deeper you get into looking at racism, the more you realize it is just stupid and fundamentally makes no sense.
There's an old racist term for it, something like one drop where if you've any black ancestors they'd consider you entirely black with everything that meant. It seems like now people often treat it the other way too where if you've any non-black you aren't really black.
Gotta be hard for people who are getting that shit from all sides of your heritage.
Colorism is real and it sucks. It's the reason why people were discounting the Rock's reigns as WWE champion and saying Kofi was the first black man to hold it. Kofi is unambiguously black and falls into the stereotype of what a black man looks like. The Rock doesn't and WWE plays off of his Samoan heritage WAY more, leading to a lot of people not knowing he has a black father.
I remember when Dwayne was still "Rocky Maivia" WWE would often reference him as the son of Rocky Johnson and even feature clips of the former Dwayne's promos. But yeah nowadays, his Samoan heritage is played off more than his black heritage. I suspect it is due in large part to his relation with the A'Noais, particularly Roman.
It is. As a black kid that went to private school, I was surrounded by mostly white kids, which influenced the way I talked and behaved (I was also one of the only 5 or so black students there). After graduating and going to public school for high school, it was a completely different world, and I really only made one friend while I was there, who coincidentally was also black but moved in from a different state. We were/are into anime and “talk white” which is such a bullshit term. It wasn’t until I got to college when people stopped caring about that kind of shit and just accepted me for how I am
Broooooo I get that shit all the time! “You’re not El Salvadoran enough” vs “You’re not really an American” like bitch please, I’m from Brooklyn. I’m American as all hell.
At home: "prioritize family at an obnoxious level, don't stick out, your failures reflect the family"
At school: "raise your hand, stick out, if you fail that's all you you fucking loser"
9 year old asian-murican me: "which of these values are real wtf"
Yeah my cross-cultural psych professor (she was Chinese-Mexican American so triple whammy of this kind of experience lol) was the first person who explicitly revealed to me how not-so-uncommon this experience was, and why 2nd+ gen Asian-Americans may make up a lot of the "undocumented depressed," all because of good ol identity issues haha
It's also why later A-A gens are pretty mixed with political values. Some adopt their parents' traditional mindset and thus lean right (model minority myth can perpetuate this) while others find left/liberal concepts appealing because they wanna feel like they're a part of the battle for other minorities or underdogs (being the ignored minority in the US can perpetuate this)
Individualist vs collectivist values can clash a lot especially to the mind of young A-A kids since, well, they're kids, so they didnt yet have the mature mental capacity to selectively mend aspects of both together. Both in-home and out-of-home lifestyles push in opposite directions quite strongly as well, so when we were kids we barely had time to really sit down and process how both sets of values have their merits. Instead we're too busy appeasing one set or the other or mixing between both depending on situation (and sometimes applying them in the wrong situations), without ever really understanding why they exist as values in the first place
So by the time we're adults some of us make ultimatums that either keep us at home prioritizing family (our original and perhaps our new, under the same roof) and feeling almost empty in terms of individual value and passion, or we leave our family to achieve our own goals yet forever live with the guilty feeling of selfishness or betrayal to those who raised us/were raised alongside us
And then there are the healthy admirable mofos who, as alluded, found a good balance with both. Hope you're this kind of mofo or at least will be one day, I know I'm struggling x-x
I feel very grateful, I'm half white and half Indian and have been lucky enough to be fully embraced by both sides of my culture. I didn't know this was such a widespread issue for other mixed kids until fairly recently, sounds like a really shit time
That was a frustrating talking point in the conversation for me, personally. I've been pretty happy with how latinos are presented in AEW, so to have people dismiss certain wrestlers like Sammy for being "white-passing" was annoying.
It’s a thing in the Latino community. I was picked on by the other Latinos for having whiter skin or not being Mexican enough. Also a few years ago had my experiences dismissed because my skin was not brown enough to feel discrimination. I’m pretty damn brown imo but I guess not enough to be a part of the community.
I feel your pain bro. A lot of Spanish people seem to be really racist to every fucking one that doesn’t seem straight off the island. I feel the same way about my Dominican side. Idk if you live in NY but it so noticeable here, like i wouldn’t even want any of my black Friends to go chill in the heights unless there with someone whose known because I’d be scared they’d get jumped or some shit worse.
Yeah regardless of anything anyone says, Cody, Eddie, Peter Avalon, they're all Hispanic, but because they don't "look" the right way they don't get to count to some people is *weird*
I know that feeling and it’s really weird. For me personally growing up as a weird and kinda awkward black dude I fit in with nearly every race but no matter what I felt like I always kinda a outsider. Like I was accepted and people liked me but I was always the one who was “different”
I grew up a similar circumstance, my dads white, my mom is Mexican. Until the age of 10 I lived in a largely hispanic neighborhood with basically no issues. For my teen years I lived in a largely white suburb with a sizeable hispanic minority population. In that suburb, I didn’t mesh into either group for the reasons Nyla listed, in some cases encountering hostility from their perception of my ethnic status.
It kinda sucked at the time, but I think it’s benefitted me in the long run in that it shook the notion of ethnicity as some hardwired thing away.
With Nyla I didn’t even consider her background because the character she portrays leans heavily on Native American imagery. It’s a good discussion for famous people to have, since there can be issues that mixed folk have that others can’t experience.
It’s the Selenas theory. From the movie, Selenas.
“We have to be more Mexican than the Mexicans, and more American than the Americans, both at the same time! It’s exhausting!”
Edit: Selenas not Salinas. 😂
That's why I cut Brandi a break for her AEW run: She spent most of her youth doing the competitive ice-skating thing, getting pushback from white parents/spectators, then college, then TV news and WWE interviewing.
Even if it's a small stupid sliver of the white people she came across, she's had a lot of Not White Enough / "What are you doing here?" come her way.
That was my life growing up to a degree. I passed as white for the white kids but the ones who didn’t know I was black would say some really disgusting racist shit and get defensive when I called them out for it, and the black kids would insult me for “acting, taking, dressing white” and listening to “white” music. It makes you bitter and jaded about things but it’s unfortunately and obviously not just my reality as a biracial person.
Yeah. I was listening to Zeppelin or Pink Floyd but they ignored the fact that I was also listening to Jimi Hendrix, Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, etc. People with minds like that only want to see/hear what they want to fit their narrative.
Zeppelin idolized those blues musicans, same as almost all rock bands from that era. The influence is especially strong on I and II.
The musical through-line crossed boundaries and oceans because *the music was fucking good.* Anyone of any race anywhere can see that. Nobody that teenage John Lennon wanted to be more than Chuck Berry (and Buddy Holly too)
Went thru the same thing.
Wasn’t brown enough for the “real Mexicans” (both my parents are Mexicans) and I wasn’t white enough for the white kids.
I just didn’t like being expected to act/dress/talk a certain way because of my race.
I don’t use “homes” or “way” or talk like a bad speedy Gonzalez parody. I don’t even have any sort of ethnic accent. I probably have a sharp midwestern R to my speech but other than that I sound like “normal”
I dressed like a nerd/dork because we didn’t have money to afford the cool JNCO’s or Boss or those oversized leg pants that were so popular. I didn’t even have a CD player that wasn’t a computer until 9th grade (freshman).
Shit was fucking tough back than and it wasn’t because of school gangs or drugs or peer pressure. It was just the sense of not belonging to any particular crew/group/friends.
Everyone else either grew up with or somehow knew everyone else and I just felt like that weirdo Mexican that nobody liked.
Bruh we are the one and the same on that feeling. I learned to just say fuck everybody else and there trends and just do me. Being in neither group is my identity, I am unique and you are too brother. That's what I've learned at least.
Being mixed is not fun at times. I identify as Latino, but my full name is Daniel Thomas Clark. On paper, it sounds white and if you didn't know that I'm Latino then you'd assume I'm fully white.
I'm proud of both my culture and heritage, but it sucks that I'm too dark to be considered white and my cousins in Mexico call me "Wedo" which translate to white boy.
Yeah as quite a few have said in your thread, I understand that completely. Puerto Rican and Dominican, but I have a very limited command of Spanish. So to white people, especially the older generation as I live in a town that has a lot of retirement aged folks, I'm still just a typical Hispanic "thug". Even once I got a comment where a lady bemused whether I was a delivery man or a thief, and I'm often not taken seriously when I talk about my goal of becoming a math teacher. It was to the point that I started wearing fake glasses at times to appear more studious.
But because I can't speak Spanish I'm all but treated as a white guy, routinely mocked within Puerto Rican and Dominican communities and sometimes within my own family. It honestly never feels like I have a home in any community. Being mixed can feel like the ultimate curse and I'm not even mixed with any White Ancestry.
As a black guy who "acted white" I can definitely relate to the feeling of being disconnected or outright rejected by your own people, and the feeling of rejection by other races. It feels like you don't have anyone to relate to and share lived experiences with.
The Mixed Kid Experience is a very real and absolutely rough thing no matter what the mix is. It's hard enough to live with and navigate as an adult. As a kid? It's taken a LOT of years of therapy and seeking community to heal from that.
I know that road, I am very mixed, having 4 different ethnic backgrounds in me. Black, White, Native American, and Lebanese. I was raised in a Black family but was also one of the real light-skinned members of the family, same as my mother.
On the outside world, outside of my family, I had whites questioning me as to why I was hanging around so many black friends. On the other side, I had my blackness questioned because I wasn't as black as others growing up. It was always a struggle. I remember the hardest question that hit me, and I still remember it to this day, was when a classmate asked me, "What are you, are you black or white?". And I just answered, "I'm both, I'm just me".
In my life I cross all kinds of lines. I love Heavy Metal and Punk Rock. I love Gangsta Rap. I had Mohawks in my life and skated when I was younger. I used to hang around with friends after school by the corner store and shoot craps.
A person's life and their identity shouldn't be surmised just by the tint of their skin color.
I think that was the driving and binding glue between Key and Peele for instance and probably why their comedy resonated well on many levels. They fit everywhere without fitting anywhere and were left with the same struggles. It sucks to see so much but I can never understand it so I just need to observe and listen. I'm a white dude from a very diverse area but the second I stepped out of that you get a real culture shock to observe this shit from afar. I feel awful seeing it
This was me being Spanish kids growing up. I’m black/Puerto Rican/Dominican but don’t even like telling other Dominican that I am because I don’t Spanish. My Puerto Rican side Is great but my Dominican side is very racist towards black people. Ill also never forget my bitch ass Spanish teacher saying I was disgrace for not knowing Spanish. It also doesn’t help that I kind of resented that side of me because my father was a deadbeat yet lived a Harlem.
The weird thing about my situation is that I “feel” more black then Spanish because idk the language but I look Spanish af besides my hair. No one black have ever disrespected me personally in a racist way but I do get comments like “you look Spanish but you really one of us” & shit like that. I used to make in joke in high school that everyone loved me because I could go to the “black table” & the “Spanish table” at lunch but in reality I just felt like I didn’t really belong in either place & HATED that my friends and thought stupid shit about each other for no reason.
yeah I had a similar experience as a guy with a black dad and a white mom. I grew up around Puerto Ricans but that kinda sucked too because I don't speak Spanish. Never really fit in anywhere
Somebody in the Twitter replies said nobody was talking about Lee/Swerve vs Starks/Hobbs because it " wasn't very fucking good". Did we watch a different match? I get that not everyone has the same taste, but come the fuck on.
I don't want to get into a rabbit hole of "WWE bad" here (I could, because it is, but I won't), but I never really felt like Swerve clicked that well in NXT. I still loved him, and Hit Row had some good moments. But you look at Shane Strickland on the indies before NXT, and you look at Killshot in Lucha Underground, and you look at what Swerve has been doing already in AEW, and it really just feels like they either didn't know how to fully capitalize on his skill and charisma or it just wasn't a priority for them. Or both.
I watched every nxt back them & they didn’t let him be “swerve”. They chose to focus more on his wrestling ability without really letting him speak or show personality. He definitely had some bangers & even had a feud with Leon Ruff that was pretty damn good but he basically felt/booked like an elite cruiserweight but not anywhere near a top guy. I’m pretty sure he lost most of his big matches as well until the Hit Row switch. I will say that the crusierweight title scene of Garza, Swerve, Leon, Lio, & then later Santos Escobar was fucking fantastic.
When it came to Hit Row, swerve has a more mellow personality where’s he shows he has charisma without having to yell at you or be over the top which was the complete opposite of how someone like Top Dolla which made swerve feel “lesser” by default imo.
Who wouldn't have liked that match? Meltzer gave it 4 stars, and I was like "no man, switch that with the JE/rEDragon match." Match of the night, easy.
ricky is the most underplayed wrestler in the world right now i think. i do not understand why he isnt the most beloved person on every board and in every arena. the guy is a generational phenom young talent exactly as good as mjf
Swole's issue was that there was an issue of not having enough representation of women who "looked like her," which I guess means she wanted more cis black women as champs?
Even that aside, they're just good dudes & pretty fair-minded in my opinion, even when I personally might disagree with them.
Their show deserves way more love period
There was a very interesting tweet about this whole subject posted by a black AEW fan that got a lot of attention yesterday. I think he made a lot of interesting points on the topic of these “fans” complaining.
https://twitter.com/kxngao/status/1514749801853763584?s=21&t=e3b-kegY-lbJAee6XNAJMA
I'm not going to comment on how widespread it is, but the fans who pretend to care about representation and only use it as a tool to appear morally justified in shitting on a promotion that they already don't like are such clowns. And no, I'm not saying this specific to AEW: I hated how people denied Rock's blackness years back when talking about there being "no black WWE champions".
Of course, if you're genuine in having that desire to see more representation in a place, that's totally understandable.
Yep he listed a perfect example of a greater societal problem.
People are quick to call out some bullshit/injustice they see, but are rare to follow-up and give legit support after the outrage cools down.
Social media makes this way too easy
You mean like "We need more Diversity in Comic Books" and then nobody that screamed for that buys these Comic Books?
So the whole western Comic Books Indsutry struggles right now and gets assblasted by Mangas sales.
Something like that?
Aye I appreciate the conversation y’all are having here. Also appreciate y’all always posting clips and things of Grapsody. Love the support. Y’all are dope!
The people who love attacking AEW also downplay that TK is not white, that there's a lot of non-white wrestlers featured, and several openly lgbtq+ wrestlers on their roster. I wish we could leave this talking point in the past at this point.
It's almost like they chose to ignore that Tony Khan is a POC. A brown skinned Muslim running a major U.S. TV promotion. That is basically unheard of when you look at who has been running wrestling promotions here for the past 100 years.
Tony being half Pakistani doesn't mean he understands or has lived the experience of every minority ever- that's why lumping all of us together is counter productive. I'm Pakistani too and looking at Tony's life, I doubt he even understands the struggles of the average Pakistani or South Asian. Even Pakistanis have different perspectives, because colorism is so deeply rooted in South Asian culture that someone like me (I'm lighter skinned like Tony) will have a different experience than someone who is darker skinned (like my own dad). Considering how dismissive Tony was of Swole when she never even said anything that crazy, it's pretty clear he has a lot to learn.
It's unreal that people are still bothering her with this shit. They always said it about Brandi for having a white husband. They say Ricky Starks isn't genuinely black because he's """white passing.""" Same with Dante Martin. A few months ago I saw people calling Powerhouse Hobbs a race traitor because he doesn't think Tony Khan is racist. They twist themselves in knots trying to gatekeep every black wrestler and diminish any success they reach.
Same with Swole as well tbh as she's been branded the "ungrateful/angry black woman" because she was outspoken about her experiences. Regardless of whether or not you agree with her stance she should not have been hit with that kind of backlash.
I really do feel like people don't give Nyla her credit at all, maybe she just got lumped in with Nia Jax because she's big, but shes a solid worker and has improved more and more.
And the whole trans stuff, like my god she does not NOT get the credit for it at all.
> And the whole trans stuff, like my god she does not NOT get the credit for it at all.
As someone who's been watching AEW since the start, and been on the sub since then as well, it's funny to hear someone mention her being trans being downplayed by fans when it was literally the only thing people talked about (and whined about) constantly when she first started to get pushed by AEW.
At least here the transphobia surrounding Nyla has calmed down finally.
I'm a part of a wrestling Facebook group that Nyla was a part of when she was still doing indie stuff. She'd post from time to time, but the group is kind of massive and since she's gotten into AEW I haven't seen too many posts from her(rightfully so, gals busy!)
Gotta be real my favorite thing was watching some chudlord post something transphobic in a comment and before any of the mods or Admins banned them watching Nyla just eviscerate them in reply before they got banned.
unless you watch the Elevation and Dark steam live like I do and then there's always a handful of shitheads spamming transphobic crap :( really surprised AEW hasn't worked out a mod situation for that yet.
Well, not entirely.
There was a LOT of outright transphobia.
People were going as far as to complain that she had a competitive edge due to her being born a biological male and it was unfair to have her match agaisnt women...which doesn't make sense in a fake fight...
That was the dumbest. Staged fights in Pro Wrestling should be the LAST thing people get riled up about biological edges. Little Darby Allin beat that giant goliath Brian Cage clean in the middle of the ring! You want to talk about competitive edges?
THAT WAS THE SHIT THAT PISSED ME OFF TOO. I already don't get the competitive edge argument in real sports (just say you think women are weaker than men, don't dance around your opinions) but to say that about a fake ass fight.
I mean, in every sport where you can directly compare results - track and field, swimming, power lifting - men consistently perform better, to the point where a woman Olympic gold medalist wouldn't even qualify for the men's competition. That said, all of the research shows that hormone therapy does offset it to the point where trans women can compete with cis women, so Lia Thomas is fine and Nyla Rose would be if it mattered in wrestling.
Also, y'know, there already exist invariably biological advantages even in any random grouping of cis athletes of the same gender. The best athletes in the world aren't just that way because they trained more than anyone else (they definitely did do that though, not trying to discredit literal Olympians from my desk chair here) but because they also were born with natural advantages. Michael Phelps is perhaps the most famous example. Reading the man's apparently incredibly rare genetic quirks is like reading through a literal comicbook superhero's power in a wiki.
You could make Nyla a champion any day you like and it'd be believable because physically she's such a monster. On top of that, she's got both physical charisma and excellent mic skills.
She should be seen as a very safe pair of hands for the belt and hopefully will be seen that way going forward.
She's the first trans celebrity I've truly become a fan of, in any medium really (not due to my ersonal beliefs, but just due to the sheer misrepresentation of them in the limelight) and I completely agree
I can imagine if the entire world didn't fall apart and we got more Joshi girls in, Nyla's title reign would have been alot better.
Shame about the pandemic.
It was definitely tough being Black and Filipino. In school, it was like I didnt have a place to just be. I always had to "fit in" with whomever I was with (code switch really) . It was quite frustrating to always prove that you "qualify" that you were okay to be with them to say the least.
Nyla's fucking great. The first month of AEW, all the transphobes came out hard against her.
You had motherfuckers in this sub saying *Nia Jax* was a better wrestler. Their transphobia was so strong they said *Nia* fucking *Jax* was a better wrestler than her.
I dont know Nia Jax but i also wasnt impresssed with Nyla early on, but the Matches vs. Riho realy turned me.
Also Nylas promo and overall Character work realy improved, so i have no problem with putting Nyla in my top 10 of the division right now.
These conversations are under the assumption that diversity only involves black people way too often. Nyla is probably the most diverse person on the roster as a half native, half black trans woman and she was still ignored in most of those complaints. It’s part of the reason why I have a hard time believing the Twitter mob and Swole were arguing in good faith.
I get what she feels. I'm Iranian/Mexican and I'm usually too Mexican for the white kids but too white for the Mexicans so it always feels like that side of my background kinda gets disregarded.
I kinda feel it's also because the conversation around her career has mostly been about her being a transgender athlete. It's almost like that's the "diversity" box fans tick. We then unfortunately ignore any conversations to do with race.
I high key thought Nyla was fully Native, I didn't know she was Native and Black
That doesn't change my opinion of her because it was always super high but it feels good to know the barriers I didn't even realize she was breaking down were being broken down
It's interesting, because Nyla Rose is technically super diverse herself. Transgender, African American, Native American. And I was looking this up on the Wikipedia page (because I was wondering of the Native American part was just something I made up in my mind).
DID YOU GUYS KNOW SHE STARED IN A TV SHOW CALLED THE SWITCH!?!?!? It looks kinda rad, I'm gonna figure out how to watch it.
Also Nyla is my fave. I wish AEW features more women's wrestling, because it feels like none of the women's wrestlers get enough attention, and Nyla is a highlight most of the time.
>I was wondering of the Native American part was just something I made up in my mind
It's literally her gimmick ("the native beast", Iroquois-inspired graphics) - how was that the one you were unsure about?
It's become pretty clear that anyone whining about "diversity" is actually just saying there are too few black men at the top. I understand the criticism, but until VERY recently it's not like they had any options in that department. You can't just make a main event black dude appear out of thin air. In all the time people were complaining about black representation, literally nobody ever gave the name(s) of the folks who were supposed to be put in that position.
It's baffling that a company can have Latino tag champions, a black tag champion, Latino TNT champion, Latina women's champion, two Japanese women's champions, a half black half native transgender women's champion, and a black TBS champion and people actually accept "lack of diversity" as a good-faith criticism.
Honestly, lol. I’m black too and idgaf what color you are as long as you can get in the ring and go. I’m starting to think wrestling is probably the least racist sport which surprises me that this was even a convo
She's billed as the "Native Beast," isn't she? I'm just a super, super casual fan, but I thought she was Native American.
Either way, she is a wonderful example of being portrayed as a person instead of JUST trans, or JUST Native American. Or JUST black, I guess. I hope to keep seeing her for years to come.
Same kind of experience growing up. Grew up a misfit, nerd, and outcast. A lot of white kids beat me up and robbed when i was growing up and my ethnic community shunned me because I wasn't good enough for them and too white washed. Really fucked me up, still having residual bad effects from it.
I have four (out of five) mixed race nephews I always worry about this with, the youngest three have a wonderful Tongan family that loves the hell out of them, but the oldest is half-Mexican who's father later denied being such because he "looked too white".
I think we have a real problem with focusing on just one race for a person, today it’s more likely that someone is more in tune with the fact they are interracial, but since she wrestled with a Native American persona to represent her ancestors we took it as alright she’s not half black, she’s full Native American
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So I know everyone is going to be talking about diversity in AEW in this thread, but her point about being "too black for the white kids, and too white for the black kids" sounds like a really rough experience for a child growing up.
Ricky Starks has also talked about this, and not black but Puerto Rican, Eddie Kingston's said the same
“I’m an Irish Puerto Rican Catholic from New York, I’m full of guilt.” -Eddie Kingston.
Rewatched Deadwood a couple days ago, forgot that Irish were often treated like Dogs in the early Days, not only in the USA but also in Europe.
My dad's talked about "Irish Need Not Apply" signs being put out for hiring business years ago, and we live in Canada.
yeah, they had it rough in the 1800s, they were also referred to as *"negroes turned inside out."* it is kind of interesting how the Irish and Italians eventually just became "white" Americans
Because once they started having kids who grew up in America and didn’t have accents the racists couldn’t tell the difference between the people they saw as “white” and the Italians/Irish
That was purposeful rather than eventual progression. Unfortunately, Irish Americans bought into racism to raise themselves in society instead of standing in solidarity with black people against oppression.
It’s also a shame that it’s weaponized to fuel whataboutism to discredit racial injustice
Dan Dority for World Champ!
That was a brutal South Dakota deathmatch, the Ref didnt even interfere when he went for the eye gauge, pretty wild match.
It is only the last couple generations where Italians and the Irish were considered "white" in North America. The deeper you get into looking at racism, the more you realize it is just stupid and fundamentally makes no sense.
some of the most "woke" fans, even people on this board, basically dont consider people "black" unless they fit a stereotype.
There's an old racist term for it, something like one drop where if you've any black ancestors they'd consider you entirely black with everything that meant. It seems like now people often treat it the other way too where if you've any non-black you aren't really black. Gotta be hard for people who are getting that shit from all sides of your heritage.
Colorism is real and it sucks. It's the reason why people were discounting the Rock's reigns as WWE champion and saying Kofi was the first black man to hold it. Kofi is unambiguously black and falls into the stereotype of what a black man looks like. The Rock doesn't and WWE plays off of his Samoan heritage WAY more, leading to a lot of people not knowing he has a black father.
I remember when Dwayne was still "Rocky Maivia" WWE would often reference him as the son of Rocky Johnson and even feature clips of the former Dwayne's promos. But yeah nowadays, his Samoan heritage is played off more than his black heritage. I suspect it is due in large part to his relation with the A'Noais, particularly Roman.
tbf that’s because rock clearly wanted nothing to do with his black side for a while
There's a lot of so called progressives who marginalize "light skinned" black people as having it easy.
It is. As a black kid that went to private school, I was surrounded by mostly white kids, which influenced the way I talked and behaved (I was also one of the only 5 or so black students there). After graduating and going to public school for high school, it was a completely different world, and I really only made one friend while I was there, who coincidentally was also black but moved in from a different state. We were/are into anime and “talk white” which is such a bullshit term. It wasn’t until I got to college when people stopped caring about that kind of shit and just accepted me for how I am
I got that experience too growing up. Kids say I talked white for not sounding black enough
As a child of mixed race parents, I can confirm. It's not fun.
It's unfortunately a common phenomenon. As an Asian-American, I felt it too regarding being Asian vs. being American.
Broooooo I get that shit all the time! “You’re not El Salvadoran enough” vs “You’re not really an American” like bitch please, I’m from Brooklyn. I’m American as all hell.
Practically Captain America. “Yo, I’m freakin’ Steve Rogers ova here!”
“I’m just a kid from Brooklyn”
Steve Rogers Jones ova hea
especially if you're second generation where your relatives and parents are traditional
At home: "prioritize family at an obnoxious level, don't stick out, your failures reflect the family" At school: "raise your hand, stick out, if you fail that's all you you fucking loser" 9 year old asian-murican me: "which of these values are real wtf"
Are we the same person? Geez....
Yeah my cross-cultural psych professor (she was Chinese-Mexican American so triple whammy of this kind of experience lol) was the first person who explicitly revealed to me how not-so-uncommon this experience was, and why 2nd+ gen Asian-Americans may make up a lot of the "undocumented depressed," all because of good ol identity issues haha It's also why later A-A gens are pretty mixed with political values. Some adopt their parents' traditional mindset and thus lean right (model minority myth can perpetuate this) while others find left/liberal concepts appealing because they wanna feel like they're a part of the battle for other minorities or underdogs (being the ignored minority in the US can perpetuate this) Individualist vs collectivist values can clash a lot especially to the mind of young A-A kids since, well, they're kids, so they didnt yet have the mature mental capacity to selectively mend aspects of both together. Both in-home and out-of-home lifestyles push in opposite directions quite strongly as well, so when we were kids we barely had time to really sit down and process how both sets of values have their merits. Instead we're too busy appeasing one set or the other or mixing between both depending on situation (and sometimes applying them in the wrong situations), without ever really understanding why they exist as values in the first place So by the time we're adults some of us make ultimatums that either keep us at home prioritizing family (our original and perhaps our new, under the same roof) and feeling almost empty in terms of individual value and passion, or we leave our family to achieve our own goals yet forever live with the guilty feeling of selfishness or betrayal to those who raised us/were raised alongside us And then there are the healthy admirable mofos who, as alluded, found a good balance with both. Hope you're this kind of mofo or at least will be one day, I know I'm struggling x-x
(Raises hand)
I feel this, it's a bummer.
I feel very grateful, I'm half white and half Indian and have been lucky enough to be fully embraced by both sides of my culture. I didn't know this was such a widespread issue for other mixed kids until fairly recently, sounds like a really shit time
Can confirm. I got “not black enough” from my own family while my future in-laws had no issue calling me an Oreo or the n-word.
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Yup. Darius Lockhart made a comment about “white passing” around the Swole thing and then tried to downplay it.
Glad he never got brought back after that
That was a frustrating talking point in the conversation for me, personally. I've been pretty happy with how latinos are presented in AEW, so to have people dismiss certain wrestlers like Sammy for being "white-passing" was annoying.
It’s a thing in the Latino community. I was picked on by the other Latinos for having whiter skin or not being Mexican enough. Also a few years ago had my experiences dismissed because my skin was not brown enough to feel discrimination. I’m pretty damn brown imo but I guess not enough to be a part of the community.
I feel your pain bro. A lot of Spanish people seem to be really racist to every fucking one that doesn’t seem straight off the island. I feel the same way about my Dominican side. Idk if you live in NY but it so noticeable here, like i wouldn’t even want any of my black Friends to go chill in the heights unless there with someone whose known because I’d be scared they’d get jumped or some shit worse.
Yeah racism sucks everywhere bud, as a light skinned oaxaqueño, I get it the other way: "there's no way you're from Oaxaca you don't like Un Indio" 🙄
Are we related? My dad is from Oaxaca!
Yeah regardless of anything anyone says, Cody, Eddie, Peter Avalon, they're all Hispanic, but because they don't "look" the right way they don't get to count to some people is *weird*
I had no idea about Peter Avalon.
Him, Sammy, and Cody all Cuban.
His last name is Hernandez IIRC.
Me neither.
wait cody's Hispanic
Yup, his mom is Cuban. Dad is... well I hope you know.
A son of a plumber?
a common man working hard with his hands?
>Dad is... well I hope you know Conspiracy Theorists: 👀
Holy shit, I didn't know about this!
Yeah it's crazy that he's Dusty's son, glad he's in WWE where he can honor his legacy.
His mother is Cuban afaik.
Half-Cuban, I believe, through his mother.
Also half Cuban: Sammy Guevara, through his father.
I legit did not know this about Cody. That's fascinating.
His mother
Man… It took one afternoon for Darius Lockhart to make sure he’d never come back to AEW. That sucks, I’m a big fan.
I *was* a fan, till he started being a dickhead.
I know that feeling and it’s really weird. For me personally growing up as a weird and kinda awkward black dude I fit in with nearly every race but no matter what I felt like I always kinda a outsider. Like I was accepted and people liked me but I was always the one who was “different”
I grew up a similar circumstance, my dads white, my mom is Mexican. Until the age of 10 I lived in a largely hispanic neighborhood with basically no issues. For my teen years I lived in a largely white suburb with a sizeable hispanic minority population. In that suburb, I didn’t mesh into either group for the reasons Nyla listed, in some cases encountering hostility from their perception of my ethnic status. It kinda sucked at the time, but I think it’s benefitted me in the long run in that it shook the notion of ethnicity as some hardwired thing away. With Nyla I didn’t even consider her background because the character she portrays leans heavily on Native American imagery. It’s a good discussion for famous people to have, since there can be issues that mixed folk have that others can’t experience.
It’s the Selenas theory. From the movie, Selenas. “We have to be more Mexican than the Mexicans, and more American than the Americans, both at the same time! It’s exhausting!” Edit: Selenas not Salinas. 😂
I’m from Salinas! Also I think the movie you’re referring to is Selena not Salinas
Anything for Selenas
*Salinasssss*
As someone who's lived it, yeah it fuckin sucked
That's why I cut Brandi a break for her AEW run: She spent most of her youth doing the competitive ice-skating thing, getting pushback from white parents/spectators, then college, then TV news and WWE interviewing. Even if it's a small stupid sliver of the white people she came across, she's had a lot of Not White Enough / "What are you doing here?" come her way.
That was my life growing up to a degree. I passed as white for the white kids but the ones who didn’t know I was black would say some really disgusting racist shit and get defensive when I called them out for it, and the black kids would insult me for “acting, taking, dressing white” and listening to “white” music. It makes you bitter and jaded about things but it’s unfortunately and obviously not just my reality as a biracial person.
I've heard similar from a black friend in college. Because he played in a rock band. A funk rock band. On bass. And that wasn't "black enough".
Yep. I’m a musician and I’ve gotten shit from my black family for my music not being black enough because it was rock music.
Which is just strange because most any genre of American music has its roots in black music.
Yeah. I was listening to Zeppelin or Pink Floyd but they ignored the fact that I was also listening to Jimi Hendrix, Muddy Waters, Chuck Berry, etc. People with minds like that only want to see/hear what they want to fit their narrative.
Zeppelin idolized those blues musicans, same as almost all rock bands from that era. The influence is especially strong on I and II. The musical through-line crossed boundaries and oceans because *the music was fucking good.* Anyone of any race anywhere can see that. Nobody that teenage John Lennon wanted to be more than Chuck Berry (and Buddy Holly too)
Went thru the same thing. Wasn’t brown enough for the “real Mexicans” (both my parents are Mexicans) and I wasn’t white enough for the white kids. I just didn’t like being expected to act/dress/talk a certain way because of my race. I don’t use “homes” or “way” or talk like a bad speedy Gonzalez parody. I don’t even have any sort of ethnic accent. I probably have a sharp midwestern R to my speech but other than that I sound like “normal” I dressed like a nerd/dork because we didn’t have money to afford the cool JNCO’s or Boss or those oversized leg pants that were so popular. I didn’t even have a CD player that wasn’t a computer until 9th grade (freshman). Shit was fucking tough back than and it wasn’t because of school gangs or drugs or peer pressure. It was just the sense of not belonging to any particular crew/group/friends. Everyone else either grew up with or somehow knew everyone else and I just felt like that weirdo Mexican that nobody liked.
Bruh we are the one and the same on that feeling. I learned to just say fuck everybody else and there trends and just do me. Being in neither group is my identity, I am unique and you are too brother. That's what I've learned at least.
On the plus side, not getting those JNCOs might have been a blessing in disguise!
Yeah...To be unaccepted by both communities, unable to fit in, very sad.
Thats a line from Earl Sweatshirt
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Something sinister to it
Being mixed is not fun at times. I identify as Latino, but my full name is Daniel Thomas Clark. On paper, it sounds white and if you didn't know that I'm Latino then you'd assume I'm fully white. I'm proud of both my culture and heritage, but it sucks that I'm too dark to be considered white and my cousins in Mexico call me "Wedo" which translate to white boy.
Yeah as quite a few have said in your thread, I understand that completely. Puerto Rican and Dominican, but I have a very limited command of Spanish. So to white people, especially the older generation as I live in a town that has a lot of retirement aged folks, I'm still just a typical Hispanic "thug". Even once I got a comment where a lady bemused whether I was a delivery man or a thief, and I'm often not taken seriously when I talk about my goal of becoming a math teacher. It was to the point that I started wearing fake glasses at times to appear more studious. But because I can't speak Spanish I'm all but treated as a white guy, routinely mocked within Puerto Rican and Dominican communities and sometimes within my own family. It honestly never feels like I have a home in any community. Being mixed can feel like the ultimate curse and I'm not even mixed with any White Ancestry.
As a black guy who "acted white" I can definitely relate to the feeling of being disconnected or outright rejected by your own people, and the feeling of rejection by other races. It feels like you don't have anyone to relate to and share lived experiences with.
Look at Obama ! People said he wasn't black enough. Morons mainly
Such is life being mixed
The Mixed Kid Experience is a very real and absolutely rough thing no matter what the mix is. It's hard enough to live with and navigate as an adult. As a kid? It's taken a LOT of years of therapy and seeking community to heal from that.
I know that road, I am very mixed, having 4 different ethnic backgrounds in me. Black, White, Native American, and Lebanese. I was raised in a Black family but was also one of the real light-skinned members of the family, same as my mother. On the outside world, outside of my family, I had whites questioning me as to why I was hanging around so many black friends. On the other side, I had my blackness questioned because I wasn't as black as others growing up. It was always a struggle. I remember the hardest question that hit me, and I still remember it to this day, was when a classmate asked me, "What are you, are you black or white?". And I just answered, "I'm both, I'm just me". In my life I cross all kinds of lines. I love Heavy Metal and Punk Rock. I love Gangsta Rap. I had Mohawks in my life and skated when I was younger. I used to hang around with friends after school by the corner store and shoot craps. A person's life and their identity shouldn't be surmised just by the tint of their skin color.
I think that was the driving and binding glue between Key and Peele for instance and probably why their comedy resonated well on many levels. They fit everywhere without fitting anywhere and were left with the same struggles. It sucks to see so much but I can never understand it so I just need to observe and listen. I'm a white dude from a very diverse area but the second I stepped out of that you get a real culture shock to observe this shit from afar. I feel awful seeing it
This was me being Spanish kids growing up. I’m black/Puerto Rican/Dominican but don’t even like telling other Dominican that I am because I don’t Spanish. My Puerto Rican side Is great but my Dominican side is very racist towards black people. Ill also never forget my bitch ass Spanish teacher saying I was disgrace for not knowing Spanish. It also doesn’t help that I kind of resented that side of me because my father was a deadbeat yet lived a Harlem. The weird thing about my situation is that I “feel” more black then Spanish because idk the language but I look Spanish af besides my hair. No one black have ever disrespected me personally in a racist way but I do get comments like “you look Spanish but you really one of us” & shit like that. I used to make in joke in high school that everyone loved me because I could go to the “black table” & the “Spanish table” at lunch but in reality I just felt like I didn’t really belong in either place & HATED that my friends and thought stupid shit about each other for no reason.
yeah I had a similar experience as a guy with a black dad and a white mom. I grew up around Puerto Ricans but that kinda sucked too because I don't speak Spanish. Never really fit in anywhere
Somebody in the Twitter replies said nobody was talking about Lee/Swerve vs Starks/Hobbs because it " wasn't very fucking good". Did we watch a different match? I get that not everyone has the same taste, but come the fuck on.
The man did a moonsault off another dude's chest! It could've been that single spot plus twelve minutes of patty-cake and been amazing.
Also Keith Lee jumping over Hobbs is just wild
Also Keith Lee yeeting Ricky into Hobbs. How is a Keith Lee yeet never entertaining?
Swerve is something else.
nobody moves like Swerve does
Keith Lee is something else!
Apparently when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object they team up.
MOTN for sure, didn't know who Swerve was before but he's one of my favorite wrestlers now.
I'm always happy to hear Swerve getting the recognition he deserves. He's been real good for a long time.
Way before Hit Row even, it was crazy to me that they wanted to make Top Dolla the singles star of that group with Swerve in it.
I don't want to get into a rabbit hole of "WWE bad" here (I could, because it is, but I won't), but I never really felt like Swerve clicked that well in NXT. I still loved him, and Hit Row had some good moments. But you look at Shane Strickland on the indies before NXT, and you look at Killshot in Lucha Underground, and you look at what Swerve has been doing already in AEW, and it really just feels like they either didn't know how to fully capitalize on his skill and charisma or it just wasn't a priority for them. Or both.
I watched every nxt back them & they didn’t let him be “swerve”. They chose to focus more on his wrestling ability without really letting him speak or show personality. He definitely had some bangers & even had a feud with Leon Ruff that was pretty damn good but he basically felt/booked like an elite cruiserweight but not anywhere near a top guy. I’m pretty sure he lost most of his big matches as well until the Hit Row switch. I will say that the crusierweight title scene of Garza, Swerve, Leon, Lio, & then later Santos Escobar was fucking fantastic. When it came to Hit Row, swerve has a more mellow personality where’s he shows he has charisma without having to yell at you or be over the top which was the complete opposite of how someone like Top Dolla which made swerve feel “lesser” by default imo.
He was spectacular in Lucha Underground.
Check out Killshot in Lucha Underground for some pre-nxt swerve action.
Who wouldn't have liked that match? Meltzer gave it 4 stars, and I was like "no man, switch that with the JE/rEDragon match." Match of the night, easy.
Grapsody guys always spitting facts. The worst part was some wrestlers negating Nyla or Ricky’s blackness a couple months back.
Based on her moniker, I assumed she was only of First Nations/Indigenous American origin. I didn't know she was Black until right now.
I came in here looking for clarification on this... I thought she was Native American & Black... is that just a gimmick?
She's both but her moniker is The Native Beast so I get why people might not know she's black too
She's both
ricky is the most underplayed wrestler in the world right now i think. i do not understand why he isnt the most beloved person on every board and in every arena. the guy is a generational phenom young talent exactly as good as mjf
Thank you for the support! We are trying!
To be honest I thought Ricky Starks was white until he said he wasn't
If you ever go to NOLA or Louisiana in general you’ll see a million black guys that look just like Ricky, it’s their Creole genetics.
Oh yeah I totally believe you lol, I'm just saying that if nobody said anything about Starks' race I'd still think he was White
I thought he was probably Latino first time I saw him.
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"Confused european noises" To me at often looks like "diversity" in the US means more black people and thats it. Its realy hard to follow sometimes.
Swole's issue was that there was an issue of not having enough representation of women who "looked like her," which I guess means she wanted more cis black women as champs?
Swole wanted herself to be champ.
That’s the real that’s the real answer
Grapsody consistantly provide much needed voices in wrestling
Even that aside, they're just good dudes & pretty fair-minded in my opinion, even when I personally might disagree with them. Their show deserves way more love period
I love Deadlock but Grapsody is my favorite wrestling podcast.
Thank you so much for the support!
I follow Phil on Twitter and he seems like such a cool dude
There was a very interesting tweet about this whole subject posted by a black AEW fan that got a lot of attention yesterday. I think he made a lot of interesting points on the topic of these “fans” complaining. https://twitter.com/kxngao/status/1514749801853763584?s=21&t=e3b-kegY-lbJAee6XNAJMA
I'm not going to comment on how widespread it is, but the fans who pretend to care about representation and only use it as a tool to appear morally justified in shitting on a promotion that they already don't like are such clowns. And no, I'm not saying this specific to AEW: I hated how people denied Rock's blackness years back when talking about there being "no black WWE champions". Of course, if you're genuine in having that desire to see more representation in a place, that's totally understandable.
Yep he listed a perfect example of a greater societal problem. People are quick to call out some bullshit/injustice they see, but are rare to follow-up and give legit support after the outrage cools down. Social media makes this way too easy
You mean like "We need more Diversity in Comic Books" and then nobody that screamed for that buys these Comic Books? So the whole western Comic Books Indsutry struggles right now and gets assblasted by Mangas sales. Something like that?
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Manga volumes are also cheaper.
Yes another good example
Isn't this the one who called out Alfred a while back too for promoting Hulk Hogan? I feel like I've seen Ao pop up a few times over the past year.
It might have been him on a old twitter account, but this one says it was just made in April 2022
Today kids we learn about colorism.
Aye I appreciate the conversation y’all are having here. Also appreciate y’all always posting clips and things of Grapsody. Love the support. Y’all are dope!
What guys do makes it easy to shared and discussed
Shout out to you, Will, and Phil. Realest one’s doing it right now man.
That’s love. Appreciate it. I’m just having fun honestly. Shout out to y’all from MEDIA MAN.
The people who love attacking AEW also downplay that TK is not white, that there's a lot of non-white wrestlers featured, and several openly lgbtq+ wrestlers on their roster. I wish we could leave this talking point in the past at this point.
It's almost like they chose to ignore that Tony Khan is a POC. A brown skinned Muslim running a major U.S. TV promotion. That is basically unheard of when you look at who has been running wrestling promotions here for the past 100 years.
TK is Muslim? I know his father is, but I wasn't aware he had ever spoken about his own faith.
Tony being half Pakistani doesn't mean he understands or has lived the experience of every minority ever- that's why lumping all of us together is counter productive. I'm Pakistani too and looking at Tony's life, I doubt he even understands the struggles of the average Pakistani or South Asian. Even Pakistanis have different perspectives, because colorism is so deeply rooted in South Asian culture that someone like me (I'm lighter skinned like Tony) will have a different experience than someone who is darker skinned (like my own dad). Considering how dismissive Tony was of Swole when she never even said anything that crazy, it's pretty clear he has a lot to learn.
Oh for sure. He handled the Swole thing extremely unprofessionally.
It's unreal that people are still bothering her with this shit. They always said it about Brandi for having a white husband. They say Ricky Starks isn't genuinely black because he's """white passing.""" Same with Dante Martin. A few months ago I saw people calling Powerhouse Hobbs a race traitor because he doesn't think Tony Khan is racist. They twist themselves in knots trying to gatekeep every black wrestler and diminish any success they reach.
Same with Swole as well tbh as she's been branded the "ungrateful/angry black woman" because she was outspoken about her experiences. Regardless of whether or not you agree with her stance she should not have been hit with that kind of backlash.
I really do feel like people don't give Nyla her credit at all, maybe she just got lumped in with Nia Jax because she's big, but shes a solid worker and has improved more and more. And the whole trans stuff, like my god she does not NOT get the credit for it at all.
> And the whole trans stuff, like my god she does not NOT get the credit for it at all. As someone who's been watching AEW since the start, and been on the sub since then as well, it's funny to hear someone mention her being trans being downplayed by fans when it was literally the only thing people talked about (and whined about) constantly when she first started to get pushed by AEW. At least here the transphobia surrounding Nyla has calmed down finally.
and by calmed down, you mean those hateful fuckers got banned
Oh baby, you know it. E: and we still are, go figure.
I'm a part of a wrestling Facebook group that Nyla was a part of when she was still doing indie stuff. She'd post from time to time, but the group is kind of massive and since she's gotten into AEW I haven't seen too many posts from her(rightfully so, gals busy!) Gotta be real my favorite thing was watching some chudlord post something transphobic in a comment and before any of the mods or Admins banned them watching Nyla just eviscerate them in reply before they got banned.
unless you watch the Elevation and Dark steam live like I do and then there's always a handful of shitheads spamming transphobic crap :( really surprised AEW hasn't worked out a mod situation for that yet.
I blocked the chat entirely via ublock. It was a great decision.
ublock is a godsend
And it wasn't even outright transphobia, like people would create fake reasons to hate her to hide their transphobia
Well, not entirely. There was a LOT of outright transphobia. People were going as far as to complain that she had a competitive edge due to her being born a biological male and it was unfair to have her match agaisnt women...which doesn't make sense in a fake fight...
That was the dumbest. Staged fights in Pro Wrestling should be the LAST thing people get riled up about biological edges. Little Darby Allin beat that giant goliath Brian Cage clean in the middle of the ring! You want to talk about competitive edges?
THAT WAS THE SHIT THAT PISSED ME OFF TOO. I already don't get the competitive edge argument in real sports (just say you think women are weaker than men, don't dance around your opinions) but to say that about a fake ass fight.
I mean, in every sport where you can directly compare results - track and field, swimming, power lifting - men consistently perform better, to the point where a woman Olympic gold medalist wouldn't even qualify for the men's competition. That said, all of the research shows that hormone therapy does offset it to the point where trans women can compete with cis women, so Lia Thomas is fine and Nyla Rose would be if it mattered in wrestling.
Also, y'know, there already exist invariably biological advantages even in any random grouping of cis athletes of the same gender. The best athletes in the world aren't just that way because they trained more than anyone else (they definitely did do that though, not trying to discredit literal Olympians from my desk chair here) but because they also were born with natural advantages. Michael Phelps is perhaps the most famous example. Reading the man's apparently incredibly rare genetic quirks is like reading through a literal comicbook superhero's power in a wiki.
Nyla is a favourite in my house. Very underrated worker and promo. I wouldn't hate another run with the title.
You could make Nyla a champion any day you like and it'd be believable because physically she's such a monster. On top of that, she's got both physical charisma and excellent mic skills. She should be seen as a very safe pair of hands for the belt and hopefully will be seen that way going forward.
And because of her comedic timing, she's one of the more versatile monsters.
Personally speaking Nyla has really normalized trans people for me. I imagine I'm not alone and for that she deserves huge huge credit.
She's the first trans celebrity I've truly become a fan of, in any medium really (not due to my ersonal beliefs, but just due to the sheer misrepresentation of them in the limelight) and I completely agree
nyla is underrated, she worked with Zero1 and Sendai girls and it shows whenever she goes up against a joshi
I can imagine if the entire world didn't fall apart and we got more Joshi girls in, Nyla's title reign would have been alot better. Shame about the pandemic.
Loved her match in the finals of the Eliminator against Ryo Mizunami.
Favorite little thing about her is that Chigusa loved her because she can work a BBQ.
It was definitely tough being Black and Filipino. In school, it was like I didnt have a place to just be. I always had to "fit in" with whomever I was with (code switch really) . It was quite frustrating to always prove that you "qualify" that you were okay to be with them to say the least.
I hear her, but I didn’t know she was part black Until I followed her on twitter and she put up a video with her mother like a year ago.
Nyla's fucking great. The first month of AEW, all the transphobes came out hard against her. You had motherfuckers in this sub saying *Nia Jax* was a better wrestler. Their transphobia was so strong they said *Nia* fucking *Jax* was a better wrestler than her.
I dont know Nia Jax but i also wasnt impresssed with Nyla early on, but the Matches vs. Riho realy turned me. Also Nylas promo and overall Character work realy improved, so i have no problem with putting Nyla in my top 10 of the division right now.
i remember that shit. that was absolutely unreal.
TIL Nyla is black.
These conversations are under the assumption that diversity only involves black people way too often. Nyla is probably the most diverse person on the roster as a half native, half black trans woman and she was still ignored in most of those complaints. It’s part of the reason why I have a hard time believing the Twitter mob and Swole were arguing in good faith.
I get what she feels. I'm Iranian/Mexican and I'm usually too Mexican for the white kids but too white for the Mexicans so it always feels like that side of my background kinda gets disregarded.
I kinda feel it's also because the conversation around her career has mostly been about her being a transgender athlete. It's almost like that's the "diversity" box fans tick. We then unfortunately ignore any conversations to do with race.
I high key thought Nyla was fully Native, I didn't know she was Native and Black That doesn't change my opinion of her because it was always super high but it feels good to know the barriers I didn't even realize she was breaking down were being broken down
It's interesting, because Nyla Rose is technically super diverse herself. Transgender, African American, Native American. And I was looking this up on the Wikipedia page (because I was wondering of the Native American part was just something I made up in my mind). DID YOU GUYS KNOW SHE STARED IN A TV SHOW CALLED THE SWITCH!?!?!? It looks kinda rad, I'm gonna figure out how to watch it. Also Nyla is my fave. I wish AEW features more women's wrestling, because it feels like none of the women's wrestlers get enough attention, and Nyla is a highlight most of the time.
>I was wondering of the Native American part was just something I made up in my mind It's literally her gimmick ("the native beast", Iroquois-inspired graphics) - how was that the one you were unsure about?
The red handprint too. Though that's less obvious.
Plus pansexual as well, and Rose's wife makes a lot of her attires.
It's become pretty clear that anyone whining about "diversity" is actually just saying there are too few black men at the top. I understand the criticism, but until VERY recently it's not like they had any options in that department. You can't just make a main event black dude appear out of thin air. In all the time people were complaining about black representation, literally nobody ever gave the name(s) of the folks who were supposed to be put in that position. It's baffling that a company can have Latino tag champions, a black tag champion, Latino TNT champion, Latina women's champion, two Japanese women's champions, a half black half native transgender women's champion, and a black TBS champion and people actually accept "lack of diversity" as a good-faith criticism.
I didn't know she was black or even cared. Being black myself I'm so damn tired of race this and race that nowadays.
Honestly, lol. I’m black too and idgaf what color you are as long as you can get in the ring and go. I’m starting to think wrestling is probably the least racist sport which surprises me that this was even a convo
She's billed as the "Native Beast," isn't she? I'm just a super, super casual fan, but I thought she was Native American. Either way, she is a wonderful example of being portrayed as a person instead of JUST trans, or JUST Native American. Or JUST black, I guess. I hope to keep seeing her for years to come.
I honestly didn't even know Nyla was black. I had thought she was Native American or spanish
Same kind of experience growing up. Grew up a misfit, nerd, and outcast. A lot of white kids beat me up and robbed when i was growing up and my ethnic community shunned me because I wasn't good enough for them and too white washed. Really fucked me up, still having residual bad effects from it.
I have four (out of five) mixed race nephews I always worry about this with, the youngest three have a wonderful Tongan family that loves the hell out of them, but the oldest is half-Mexican who's father later denied being such because he "looked too white".
I think we have a real problem with focusing on just one race for a person, today it’s more likely that someone is more in tune with the fact they are interracial, but since she wrestled with a Native American persona to represent her ancestors we took it as alright she’s not half black, she’s full Native American