Gail Kim expresses her opinion about how minorities are treated in professional wrestling and particularly WWE.
IMPACT Wrestling Hall Of Famer Gail Kim is set to make her return to in-ring competition in two weeks at IMPACT Wrestling's 'Rebellion' pay-per-view where she'll go one-on-one with former Knockouts Champion Tessa Blanchard. The upcoming match will be the first time that Gail has wrestled since last year and the first time she'll wrestle for IMPACT since retiring from the company in 2017 and transitioning into a backstage role.
Gail has been a part of IMPACT Wrestling and WWE locker rooms on numerous occasions and she has spoken out in the past about their being inner-racism within WWE in regards to how the company presents and treats their athletes of different ethinicities and color. Gail further touched on that topic when she chatted with DS Shin of Ring The Belle and stated that when she sees the likes of Kairi Sane, Io Shirai and Asuka in WWE, she becomes worried for them because she has experienced what it is like for an ethnic minority to be misused in the sports-entertainment company.
"When I see these talented people like them [Io Shirai, Kairi Sane, Asuka], I get worried for them because I just know what kind of talent they have and it would make sense to utilize their talent to the upmost degree. I mean, that’s how you make money right? Do it to their best ability and I’m worried about the stereotypes in the business because normally and not in all cases but a lot of cases, you see a lot of the ethnic minorities being grouped together because they really don’t know what else to do and when I was there they would always ask me, ‘Do you speak Korean? Do you speak Korean?’ And I’m like, ‘No I didn’t learn a language in the last six months’ and so for me it was like, are they trying to make me go into that stereotypical role because that’s not me.” Kim expressed.
Gail Kim said that she would've never been able to pull off one of those stereotypical roles. She went on to state that WWE Chairman Vince McMahon believes that because he brings in people of different ethnicities, that it means he is not a racist which she deemed false.
"They have and I would never be able to pull that off because I was born and raised in Canada." Gail laughed. "I do worry about that. I hope that it does change, and I do think there’s a lot of racism and stereotyping but that’s not an excuse for Vince [McMahon] or anything like that but I think it’s just ignorance. I think people with those kind of beliefs are raised that way but it’s a different world now so I hope that he’s listening and that he’s changing stuff." She continued, "This is the thing: I think in his mind, he thinks that if he hires people of ethnicities that he’s not racist but it’s not. It’s more than that and you know that. I truly believe that in his mind, he doesn’t think someone of color could be his face of the company which I disagree with. If you can connect with the audience in some way, you can be at the top.”
As mentioned, Gail Kim has spoken out in the past about the racial experiences that she has had in WWE and to check out Fightful's published article about Gail's past comments, click here.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Ring The Belle with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.
