Trump and the Iowa Wrestlers - Um, Totally Racist...
In case you haven't seen the video taken at a Iowa Trump rally, it is well worth a watch, if only to put your head in your hands and wonder about the modern world. What takes place can only be described as racist. In fact, some commenters to the video have questioned whether it is a Poe or not. Whether it is or not is almost irrelevant - the fact that you cannot tell is enough to condemn Trump and his followers as racist. Here is the link to the facebook video. It can also be seen below:
I found a piece from the 1st November that decried the fact that fellow wrestlers in Iowa were participating:
As a fan of college wrestling and huge supporter of the sport I was utterly appalled by several Iowa wrestlers appearing With Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. This occurrence doesn’t only speak to a lack of political judgment, which is understandable and what freedom is about, it speaks to why we can’t grow the sport of wrestling in America.
Recently an article circulated in Missouri wrestling circles about the decline in participation levels in the sport. Now, there are a number of factors involved in this decline including specialization and cultural shifts, however race definitely plays a role. To put it blunt wrestling in America is too white. Wrestling thrives in rural America and exurbia. In the inner-city, working-class suburbia, and communities of color the sport is fringe if it exists as all. I see no reason for this. Wrestling should exist in communities of all races and socioeconomic statuses.
In case people in wrestling aren’t paying attention America is becoming more diverse and less white. This means if wrestling in America is to have a healthy future the sport must become more diverse. The sport can’t just be strong in a depopulated and deindustrialized rust belt. These are areas that are losing population as factories close along with family farms.
Within the segment of white America where wrestling is popular Donald Trump also happens to be popular. Rural and small-town Iowa, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania and white-flight exurbia like St. Charles County, Missouri. To a very large percentage of the rest of America Trump is a truly reprehensible figure....
When you take a political stance you have to be willing to take the heat for that stance. When that stance is celebrated because of the celebrity attached to Hawkeye wrestling then prepare to be called out for the damage you’ve done to the image of the sport we all love.
The mere exposure effect, however, will work in Trump's favour. It's how advertising works, and why it was dangerous to give Ken Ham the oxygen of publicity in debating Bill Nye. That is the more you see something, the more credible and acceptable it becomes. We see this so often from Trump that he is normalising such damaging views.