Hulk Hogan's comments

I'm obviously a wrestling fan (enter Skipbone in with his "Pssst, it isn't real" in 5, 4, 3, 2,...) so I wanted to offer my opinion on this.

Let me not equivocate: his comments were repulsive and I need not repeat them.

Having said that, let me say this as well: corporations need an expansive nationwide policy about racial slurs, how/where/when they are said, to figure out the 'grey areas' when something like this happens outside of the place of work, in private, and at a different time. This is not acceptance of such slurs. This is aligning a company policy with rights as an American citizen. This case is an example of one of them.

The Federal Government will not pass a law supporting such an expansive policy. Corporations need to institute it themselves and understand that termination of employment and/or scrubbing an employees name and historical contributions from your roles is not only an unreasonable response, but one that is built on fear.

If a corporation TRULY wants a diverse and accepting environment (as the WWE says it does), then IMMEDIATE TERMINATION and attempts to rewrite wrestling history are NOT sensible or practical solutions for comments made in private with someone you trusted.

If you use slurs that create an environment of discrimination, sexual or racial, WITHIN your place of work, and it can be proven, then termination is completely reasonable, if not mandatory.

Hulk made these comments within an area that he expected to have a reasonable amount of privacy in, just as we all do when we are in our homes or a hotel room we rented (I need not comment on his sexual endeavors. That's his business and he dealt with it through a nasty and financially crippling divorce).

It was to someone, at the time, he trusted would not be recording him.

That person has had their relationship with the Hulk deteriorate enough to release these comments publicly. That should be taken into account.

You have the release of the tape with your words to a ex-lover, where comments were made 8 years ago in private confines.

Yes the comments were repulsive and I could surmise that the Hulk would say the same things today (but cannot prove that).

But I cannot get past the point that this did not happen in a workplace and I cannot get past the point that some sort of reasonable legal statue of limitations has to apply here (even though none does) and I have to defend his right to privacy.

To say the Hulk is a public figure and cannot express his thoughts in his most private moments, HOWEVER REPULSIVE, and that he cannot defend himself against secretly recorded is something that I cannot concede as a US citizen.

I understand the WWE does not want to be associated with a racist but this is the height of hypocrisy from McMahon. McMahon has routinely and unabashedly exploited the worst characteristics of blacks through wrestlers like Cryme Tyme, RTruth, parading The Rock around like a native Pacific islander in his early days, the Nation of Domination, right down to D-Lo Brown African strips on his wrestling singlet, having Bad News Brown act like he was an ex-con, painting Mark Henry as having an insatiable sexual appetite as Sexual Chocolate (and on and on and on...I could go on for days back to Superfly Snuka).

I, as a wrestling fan, have to endure some of these wild and unacceptable stereotypes for the 'sake of satire'. To say those characters don't lend themselves to a zeitgeist of discrimination among bigots within the crowd is ludicrous. This again, is another grey area within the role play of characters with regard to what wrestling is and how it is presented as an act and would deserve a thread in its own right. There is a debate, sometimes intense, with regard to these characters and what the responsible dividing line should be when presenting them. If I was McMahon I would not present minorities, in any way, as he does. It's as simple as that.

In short, if you are truly trying to punish Hogan for his racist comments, firing him, inviting only fear and resentment, is not a practical solution. Suspension? Ok. Withholding of pay to some degree? Ok. Counseling? Ok. Those are far more reasonable than termination and scrubbing a man who is responsible for the genesis of the leviathan that the WWE is today.

Wrestling is a symbiotic relationship for both wrestler and Federation. Hogan cannot be erased for his contributions to the Federation, again, however repulsive.

Zero tolerance from corporations in this instance is not a viable solution. There has to be a demarcation of punishment within the work environment and outside of it, even as a public figure. (I do have zero tolerance with regard to actual crimes being discussed in private, but again, that is another thread).

I am saddened and disgusted by what he said but I have to side with a reasonable right privacy for the Hulk when it comes to his employment. Yes the corporation is a private one and I also understand they have 'rights' as well and are protecting a brand. But I cannot surrender a right to privacy that and I cannot agree with actions of the WWE given the circumstances surrounding Hulk's comments. Hulk will suffer a great deal publicly, far beyond his employment status for what he said. That punishment is far greater than termination.