As details from the leaked sex tape transcripts emerged, WWE was quick to separate themselves from the racist remarks made by Hulk Hogan. Not everyone took that tack, however, as Roddy Piper leapt to his defense in a somewhat bizarre tirade on The Rich Eisen Show. Like the very worst of a comment section trying desperately to look as unaffected by things as possible, Piper’s response was… worrisome at best. After telling stories about himself ordering “gringo burgers” at Mexican restaurants, and being greeted by 16,000 Puerto Ricans with knives at Madison Square Garden (your guess is as good as mine as to what the heck that means), Piper insisted that those concerned with Hogan’s racist tirade should “get a life,” and we “shouldn’t hurt people’s feelings for no reason.”
My point is that, boy, you guys are sensitive. Hang on. I know people who have to get up to walk five miles for water first thing in the morning. I’m just saying this literally happens to me my whole life. With Hulk, I don’t agree with all his choices, but you know what, I don’t hear people saying all the great things he does. When he was on the Wheaties box, all those kids that said their prayers and took their vitamins. I don’t hear them saying that. They just want to nail this.
Piper appeared a little more uh, lucid, shall we say, when questioned by TMZ Sports on Monday. He explains that he’s never seen Hogan use a racial slur in locker rooms before, and there’s no anti-Semitism in wrestling. According to him, pro wrestlers don’t have time to be racist. Oh, honey.
He continues:
One, it was a privacy issue in his own home. Two, his son was going through a really rough time. He’s trying to take care of his daughter. He’s trying to keep his family together. Do I condone it? No. But I think Hulk Hogan has done a whole lot more toward society than he has negative to our society.
Piper says that if his kids “were in that kind of jam, I’d have done whatever I had to, too.” But there’s a big difference between bailing your kids out of debt, or supporting them in a time of need than dropping a bunch of racial slurs after plowing your best friend’s wife, y’know?
While it’s easy to dismiss Piper’s comments as the ramblings of an expiring generation steeped in an industry that’s needlessly cruel to every person who isn’t a straight white male (and, who are we kidding, it’s pretty terrible to them, too), the dismissive, “just get over it already” attitude is what perpetuates acceptance of prejudice. It’s especially concerning when you consider that Piper was on The Rich Eisen Show in part to promote his work with anti-bullying charity Stand for the Silent. Maybe if we’re looking for an outside opinion, or even some kind of solace in the situation, we don’t look to old white dudes who came up in the same broken industry who are more than willing dismiss any offense taken by those actually affected by racism?
Yeah, let’s do that thing.
