Earlier today I was casually perusing through Instagram and happened upon Amanda Diva’s Instagram page. The photo was a screen capture of a 2015 Complex.com article about an interview Brooke Hogan, who is the daughter of the now infamous Hulk Hogan, had with video magazine Entertainment Tonight. In the interview Brooke attempts and fails miserably to defend her father and dispel his racist comments. I am all for the defense of your loved ones especially when you feel they are being railroaded or otherwise treated unjustly, but this is just pure unadulterated BULLSHIT!!! What Brooke Hogan said is what many white folks say in defense of their blatant bigotry, “My dad’s best friends with Mr. T, he’s best friends with Dennis Rodman, he’s not racist.” The “I have Black friends” excuse is played the fuck out! How does having relationships across the racial lines constitute non-racism when the actions of the person accused of being racist were indeed racist? There would be no need to play the “I have Black friends” card if those relationships were genuine and not circumstantial. Having a few Black friends means nothing because even white slave holders had relationships both platonic and sexual with enslaved Africans and it didn’t stop them from enslaving and exploiting them!

It seems like white folks want to lay claim to any and all things unique to the African American experience and the experiences of those within the African diaspora! Case in point is the “I experience racism too” argument racist’s use. Brooke Hogan stated in the interview that, “this is something that we have to put a stop to everyday recalls a time when a Black man said, “I’ve had a black guy call me a honkey, and I’ve also been told that white people smell like bologna.” That’s fucked up, but hardly racist and is at best mean spirited. Any ounce of fake sympathy I could have for her wasn’t allowed to manifest because what she said next was very telling, “I don’t take offense to it, I just laughed at it.” If it were all just a joke to you what relevance would it have as evidence to support your bullshit “I’ve experienced racism too” argument? When was the last time someone who actually experienced racism revealed they laughed at the epithets and slurs being hurled at them? I can’t name not one time and I know plenty folks of color who have real lived experiences with racism and its cousin prejudice.

I think white folks have come to the point where exploitation is not enough and the eventual need to not only consume the physical labor or the culture of Black folks, but to imbibe the lived-experiences of Black folks. I imagine when Black cultural consumption and voyeurism no longer sustains them, some white folks up the ante and go “slumming” and live the “ghetto lifestyle.” Once it’s out of their systems they return comfortably back to their roots and their middle class or suburban neighborhoods. Is it not enough that white folks continue to systematically oppress people of color, Black folks in particular that they not only want our culture and intellectual contributions, but to lay claim to the very oppression they created in the form of “reverse racism.” That’s fucking CRAZY!!!