The establishment–named Reggie’s—is an after hours hangout for many of the university’s students, and has apparently served as such for the past 15 years. However, one young Black female student stepped forth and shed light on Reggie’s questionable practices regarding how it checks in its patrons. Taylor Ward is the Melanoid student previously mentioned who took to Twitter to express her frustration with her visit to Reggie’s, went on to describe the following:

This image is a screenshot of Ward’s Tweet, which was later deleted. As the picture depicts above, the stamp on her hand bears an eerie resemblance to the word “nigger”, even though letters are positioned upside down to illustrate the covert racist message the bar attempted to convey.

This isn’t the only clue that this place of business is owned and/or operated by suspected white supremacists. Last month, the LSU Reville ran a feature which went in-depth by questioning the suspect culture of the business. The story featured its discriminatory practices toward Melanoid people, to its tasteless choice of decorations in the form of a large confederate flag which hangs freely behind the counter of the bar.

Picture of the confederate flag which hangs in the bar area of Reggie’s.

The manager of Reggie’s, who as expected, has defended the venue’s use of the “Reggie/Nigger” stamps, has stated that the stamps have been used once a week for the past decade, and that there is no racial messages connected to the stamp. On another note, the term “Reggin”–the same word that is stamped on the Black hands of Taylor Ward and countless other Blacks who frequent the establishment–is derived with the intention of being the opposite of a “nigger/Black person”. It refers to white people who “act Black”, or choose to “slum” with Black people.

Watch the video on the story below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLDipXJKplo

B. Clark

The report goes on to elaborate on how Hogan was caught on a sex tape with a woman. On the tape, there is audio that captures Hogan using the “n-word” more than once in reference to Melanoid people. In an interesting twist to the news story, it has also been revealed that WWE CEO Vince McMahon referred to another white WWE star–John Cena–as the “n-word” right in front of a Melanoid wrestling star by the name of “Booker T”. McMahon then proceeded to walk away form Cena in an exaggerated walking style that easily implies he is ridiculing a Melanoid person.

With the recent controversy surrounding Hogan, one must look at a recent chain of events that occurred leading up to the latest story. In 2014, an article was featured in November of last year, a story on Sole Collector (a sneaker publication and website) did a story on how Hogan loved to flaunt his large collection of Air Jordan sneakers to people via social media. In fact, you can view a quick video clip of him showing off some of his collection of Jordans below.

According to Hulk Hogan, his usage of the “n-word” has been validated because certain Black people deemed it ok for him to use as he pleases. This mindset of the wrestler is reminiscent of the “slumming” phenomenon, in which whites will hang out with a few Blacks in order to appease their appetite for debauchery before returning back to their communities to “sanitize” themselves of any semblance of Black culture. As most people in American society know all too well at this point, Air Jordans have been perceived to be synonymous with Black culture, style, and overall “swag”, as seen in the eyes of many non-Melanoid people.

Historically, many suspected white supremacists “slum” in order to get their “Black fix” while keeping their racist ideologies intact. It is also done to overcompensate for trying to convince Black people that they can be trusted, because they’re the “cool white people”. Now that Hulk Hogan’s racial tirade has been revealed, is it quite possible that he resorted to slumming for this very same reason?