Hanley! wrote:Daz and Sortacreative have covered much of what I was going to say, but I want to make one additional point that I think is important: The Japanese should in no way be setting the standard here.
America is not just a more liberal country, it's a far more multi-cultural country. The English speaking world is massive compared to the Japanese speaking world, and even just within America itself, there is a far greater diversity of races and ethnicities.
Looking at the NJPW roster, the percentage of Japanese talent to foreign talent is probably not representative of the country as a whole. There's actually less diversity in that country than what they're showing us in NJPW. Meanwhile, on WWE television it's the exact opposite. The range of talent that they present on television, particularly towards the top of their roster, is not representative of the American population. There is more racial and cultural diversity in America than what is depicted on television.
Which also puts the lie to the idea that it's okay for WWE to just push white Americans because people like to watch performers that are similar to them. This suggests that the American audience consists almost entirely of white people born in America. The notion gets even sillier when you realise that WWE is not even an American company. It's an international company, tours and airs shows all over the world, and likes to brag about that fact. They have a much broader audience than NJPW and should be catering to a broader audience. Not just the one they're most comfortable with.
Also the way WWE saddles people of other races with offensive stereotypes as gimmicks is another massive part of the problem in that company, but I've talked about that before and the others have already covered it in this topic.
Overall when it comes to race, NJPW are doing pretty good considering, and WWE are doing pretty bad in general.
Oh yes, I've been waiting for the "America should be set to a higher standard" response.
