Alright Punk, Let's Cut out the Casual Racism, Mkay?

I always thought Punk was better than to make fun of del Rio for being "greasy"
Photo Credit: WWE.com

There are a lot of "questionable" things that CM Punk does that are alright by me as a fan favorite. While I rail on John Cena a lot for violating his tenets as a lawful good goober, it's not because I feel like the good guys have to be white knights. Steve Austin then and to an extent, Randy Orton now were cheered in spite of their loutish behavior, but they were never spouting off credos like "Hustle, Loyalty and Respect" or "Never Give Up". So, when Punk harasses Triple H or Johnny Ace to the point where less charismatic guys would come off as jerks, I'm alright with it. When he socks David Otunga across the face in response to being called a gas station attendant, I'm cheering my butt off.

That being said, there's one thing that CM Punk has been doing lately that does not set well with me, and that's the ethnic slurs tossed in the direction of Alberto del Rio. These play so far into the negative stereotypes of wrestling that I almost feel ashamed for liking what Punk has been doing lately, and that's a shame, because he's slowly rounding into the form he had before they wrote him to be Triple H's lil' buddy. I tried to look past it last week, hoping that it was just a one-time thing and we could all forget it, but apparently, either the WWE writing staff, Punk himself or both seem to think that a guy's ethnicity is something to use against him. It's 2011. I thought we were better than that as a society.

It's even more disheartening that it's Punk doing it. It's one thing if the guy making the cracks was a dyed in the wool old-school pro wrestler types. Punk's supposed to be different. Punk's supposed to be the guy who thinks outside the box and changes the game. One would think that he'd have enough stroke backstage to see the script call for him to call del Rio everything short of a "wetback" and veto it. I'd say there's even more evidence that Punk gets to work outside the script more than any other guy on the roster outside of maybe Cena, so that's what makes it shake my head even more. For as intelligent and progressive as he comes off out of character, one would think that he'd inject some of that savvy into it.

But no, we're all left to believe that just because del Rio was born in another country that he deserves our scorn. Playing off the base fear of an fanbase's assumed conservatism is appealing to the lowest common denominator. It was still as shameful but understandable when The Miz, a company man through and through, or even Cena would bait del Rio because of his heritage. It's not understandable at all to see the guy who was going to change the game and "make wrestling cool again" doing it. CM Punk needs to cut out the casual racism, or else he'll just disappointingly prove that he's not a game-changer, just another huckster who reinforces the image of a wrestling fan as a backwater hick who hates everyone who isn't white or American.