7 Incredibly Messed Up Allegations From WCW's Racial Discrimination Lawsuits
3. Complaints To Human Resources Were Largely Ignored
Recently, with the controversy over WWE firing Alberto Del Rio for slapping a social media manager who refused to apologize for making a racist joke, the proper procedure for what to do in such a situation has been discussed. In 2014 in a public company, there's no two ways about it: You have to go to human resources. It may not be the old-school or macho way to do things, but Mark Henry did that when he had similar problems, and are you going to question him? In WCW, all complaints about discrimination, harassment, etc. were to be directed to the human resources departments of Turner Sports and later Turner Entertainment Group. Onoo noted in a deposition that he and Stevie Ray brought up a number of issues to Tim Goodly in human resources after a diversity training class, mainly that there were no minorities on the booking committee/creative team. During the class, there was a lot of talk about how great it was that WCW's roster was so diverse, but Onoo wasn't impressed because the diversity wasn't there backstage. Onoo made it clear that he and Stevie Ray weren't asking to be appointed to the booking committee themselves: They just wanted it to have a more diverse makeup in general. This never really panned out, though; they did add gay indie rock legend Bob Mould to the team, but never any people of color. A complaint that Onoo and Ernest Miller made together didn't really go anywhere, either, this case being when Buff Bagwell donned blackface to parody Miller while another wrestler wore some kind of stereotypical "Oriental" Halloween mask to portray Onoo. Kevin Sullivan had given Onoo and Miller a heads up before the show about what was going to happen, but they were handcuffed by Goodly not being at the Nitro taping. Why? Goodly told them that he was the only person they could go to with that kind of complaint, and they obeyed, with Onoo not even asking his long-time friend Eric Bischoff to intervene. The segment made air and was widely criticized for the use of blackface and to a lesser extent, the mask on the Onoo impersonator.
Formerly the site manager of Cageside Seats and the WWE Team Leader at Bleacher Report, David Bixenspan has been writing professionally about WWE, UFC, and other pop culture since 2009. He's currently WhatCulture's U.S. Editor and also serves as the lead writer of Figure Four Weekly and a monthly contributor to Fighting Spirit Magazine.
Onoo made it clear that he and Stevie Ray weren't asking to be appointed to the booking committee themselves: They just wanted it to have a more diverse makeup in general. This never really panned out, though; they did add gay indie rock legend Bob Mould to the team, but never any people of color. A complaint that Onoo and Ernest Miller made together didn't really go anywhere, either, this case being when Buff Bagwell donned blackface to parody Miller while another wrestler wore some kind of stereotypical "Oriental" Halloween mask to portray Onoo. Kevin Sullivan had given Onoo and Miller a heads up before the show about what was going to happen, but they were handcuffed by Goodly not being at the Nitro taping. Why? Goodly told them that he was the only person they could go to with that kind of complaint, and they obeyed, with Onoo not even asking his long-time friend Eric Bischoff to intervene. The segment made air and was widely criticized for the use of blackface and to a lesser extent, the mask on the Onoo impersonator.