With the changing standards of what is and is not acceptable discourse concerning race, ethnicity, religion, and the like, pop culture has had to change as well. Certain films have been removed from release, and others have been updated to accommodate these modern ideals. However, many things have been slow to change with these new standards, and I am writing this as a means to accost something that has preferred to live in the past: wrestling. So I am going to take the bulk of this article to discuss the latest in the long history of ethnocentric behavior, the character of Muhammad Hassan.

When I saw the first promo for Hassan's character, I was completely caught off guard. It seemed that the angry, screaming Arab was replaced with a man who said that he wanted to work hard to show Americans that not all Arab-Americans are radical. I thought it amazing that the WWE (responsible for the Iron Sheik) had actually acted sensitively to a minority race. I thought it too good to be true that they hadn't tried a cop-out heel act for Hassan to catch some easy heat. And damn it, it was. After a few promos I began to wonder who this Arab-American dude screaming about how Americans screwed over his people was. I knew he did a mean impression of Muhammad Hassan, though.

So WWE did catch the easy heat, and involved (because I think it's over) Hassan in a crap storyline with Jim "Austin! Austin! Austin!" Ross and Jerry "I hope we get to see some puppies" Lawler, and played the easy heat up like mad. Thus another potential role model for young Arab-Americans is replaced by by a negative stereotype.

I have watched and enjoyed wrestling since before I could walk, and spend a lot of time on the subject, but as much as I love it, this is a major problem. I'm not attempting to be heavy-handed (and I hope I'm not acting like it) but I'm just discussing something important to me. Thank you to all who have read my first article, and if enough people enjoyed it, maybe I'll write another.

by Patrick Guthrie..