John Cena is the anti-discrimination hero we never knew we needed
Back in the golden days when The Shield were together and CM Punk was still around, I was a fan of professional wrestling. I watched Raw every week with my friends, we’d take time off work to watch WrestleMania in real-time, we listened to wrestling podcasts and went to WWE events when they came to Sydney. John Cena was a recurring figure amongst all of this. The media darling of the pro-wrestling industry, he mainly existed to win championships, repeat slogans, and promote merchandise.
That’s why I was surprised that on Independence Day this year, Cena released a video about the importance of celebrating diversity. When I first heard about it, I pre-emptively cringed. If there’s anything the world doesn’t need more of, it’s well-intentioned white celebrities trying to talk about discrimination and completely missing the mark (see: Matt McGorry, Patricia Arquette, every smug dude wearing a ‘This is what a feminist looks like’ shirt).
But it was far from that. The video, which re-frames patriotism to be about celebrating the diversity of the American population, is surprisingly on the money. It uses storytelling to make the viewer examine their own internal biases, before gently presenting facts and figures to bring the message home.
Of course, the video was created by an ad agency to promote the ‘Love Has No Labels’ campaign. While Cena (perhaps for the first time in his career) seems genuine, the script was created by writers who obviously knew what they were doing. Furthermore, many progressive circles would criticise me praising Cena, claiming that he shouldn’t be “given a cookie” for doing something any decent human should do — standing up against discrimination. But I think it’s more nuanced than that, and the video has stuck in my mind for the last few days. What does it mean when one of the biggest celebrities in a hyper-masculine, hyper-violent, hyper-American sport speaks out in favour of diversity? Truthfully, I think it means a whole lot.
As a small South Asian woman, I always stood out like a sore thumb in the mostly white, mostly male crowds who watched pro-wrestling. I distinctly remember sitting in the Allphones Arena for WWE Live 2014 while men sculled beer and chanted beside me. Analysis of WWE viewer demographics in the United States tells a similar story — your typical WWE audience is men of all ages, and usually white men. Most live in the southern states in lower-income households, and are not college educated. Not surprisingly, this maps almost exactly onto the demographics of Trump supporters. Trump has even been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame for his contributions to the industry. Additionally, pro-wrestling is known for often promoting cringe-worthy, conservative, patriotic characters as ‘faces’ (wrestling speak for ‘the good guys’).
One of the main barriers progressive movements face is pushing conversations about anti-discrimination outside of a bubble of already left-leaning voters, writers, academics and activists. Progressive parties in Australia like The Greens have generally struggled to break out of their well-educated, high-earning voter demographic and engage the working class. Robin DiAngelo, professor of multicutural education at Westfield State University, believes that learning about concepts such as privilege and bias from someone similar to you makes students less defensive and more willing to listen.
Bearing this in mind, the beauty of the video campaign lies in the fact that Cena is perfectly positioned to deliver a message about diversity. He is a muscly white man engaging in a masculine sport. He has a huge platform made up of exactly the kinds of people that anti-discrimination movements want to target, but don’t know how to: conservative white men and their sons. If DiAngelo is correct, it is Cena himself, and not a left-wing activist, that these people are more likely to listen to.
Cena is revered across America, especially by young children. The ‘Love Has No Labels’ campaign is a conscious push back against the sexism, homophobia, and racism that has often infiltrated the pro-wrestling industry. The video isn’t just a sappy love-in about diversity either; it specifically breaks down categories of minorities and uses the lens of unconscious bias to educate its audience about discrimination. If Cena can reach out and get through to even a small percentage of his fans, he will have delivered the most impressive Attitude Adjustment of his career.
