Whether or not people want to hear it, there is a racial aspect to The New Day. Apparently their original vision for the trio was scrapped due to the racial unrest in America due to the killing of Mike Brown, a young African American, by a white police officer. Its easy to understand why the WWE might have shied away from having a stable of three of their black superstars fighting to take control of their careers and rise up within the company being portrayed as villains given the circumstances. With that being said, if the WWE was looking to avoid any kind of racial criticism of a gimmick they were presenting, they might have thought twice about making the trio be The New Day. Its not overtly racist, but it certainly is at the very least vaguely stereotypical. They are obviously playing up the idea of the black church experience, complete with the soulful gospel choir singing their theme, and they way they are speaking in their video packages and promos. Add to that that they come out every week enthusiastically dancing and clapping, with JBL questioning the sincerity of their positivity, all but outright accusing them of shuckin and jivin, and it isnt hard to see the obvious racial overtones in the gimmick. What is most offensive is that fact that there is no real meaning behind any of it. Its all just a caricature of black church folk complete with gospel singing, preaching, and clapping soulfully. If theyre going to present a story with racial overtones, most black fans, and people with brains, would prefer if they didnt do so with caricatures and overtones. Just come out and tell a story about race. They do it on TV shows, in movies and in literature. The WWE is performance art. Just tell a story with real meaning, that reflects current cultural events, such as what is going on in the world of hip hop, with conversations being had about misappropriation of black culture by white artists. Its taboo, but its a real story. Why couldnt you reflect that by having New Day take umbrage with Cenas appropriation of hip hop culture into his rise to the top of WWE. Its kind of a direct correlation and an interesting, thought provoking topic to broach. What The New Day is now, is at least mildly offensive in its remedial and sophomoric racial overtones. It reduces an entire aspect of the culture, to fancydancin and black preacher impressions.
Matthew J. Douglas is an emerging screenwriter born in Toronto. A lifelong fascination with what makes a compelling story and the Toni Morrison quote "If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." led the often opinionated Matthew to the life of writer. Matthew is also a lifelong WWE fan, and a self diagnosed Reality TV Junkie.
