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?

What’s even more interesting is that this isn’t the first year that Nike has released the BHM Collection. Apparently, the company has been releasing Black History Month-themed shoes and apparel for as early as 2005, when the Pan African flag—the same red, black, and green flag created by the Garvey Movement to promote unity and power among people of African descent across the globe—was featured on the side of the world famous Nike Air Force One sneaker, a shoe originally released in 1982 that ironically was given new life and re-introduced to the world by rap artist Nelly in 2002. At this point in our history, it’s become commonplace to witness multinational corporations rake in the dough from our images, talent, and in this case, our history…without our community ever seeing a dime of the profit.

Nike, like many other major name brand companies in the U.S., thrives off of the Black dollar. Will portions of the sales of the shoes and apparel go towards the families of the slain Black and innocent victims of police brutality? Will portions of the sales of the shoes and apparel go towards reversing the increasing trend of Black unemployment by creating jobs for Blacks here in the States as opposed to outsourcing the labor to third world Asian nations? Time will tell. On the flip side, perhaps this is their way of facetiously “honoring” us by naming one of their marketing campaigns in our honor.

by B. Clark