It hasn’t been a good week for Hulk Hogan. After the wrestler was outed for a racist rant by the Enquirer, he wasn’t just fired from the WWE, he had all mentions of his persona completely scrubbed from the WWE’s website and online stores.
Now, in an apparent bid to deflect attention from his own scandal, the wrestler is equating his use of the N-word with President Obama’s. According to the Daily Beast, Hogan yesterday retweeted this tweet to his followers:
Bi-racial President Obama uses N word, is applauded and keeps his job. @HulkHogan uses N word, is vilified and loses his job.
— Wolfshead Online (@WolfsheadOnline) July 27, 2015
The tweet is in reference to Obama’s use of the N-word during a recent interview on Marc Maron’s popular WTF podcast. In it, Obama did in fact use the word, but he used it in a frank discussion on race. However, while Hulk’s firing by the WWE was (according to multiple news outlets) ostensibly over a similar incident, i.e. a radio interview in which he dropped the N-word while questioning why there is a double standard for the word between African Americans and other races, there’s much more to it than that.
From the Enquirer’s report, which has since been carried by several reputable news sites, it is believed that the real root of Hogan’s dismissal was due to his use of the N-word repeatedly, and with much volatility, on a sex tape that is the center of a multi-million dollar lawsuit with exploitation media site, Gawker. The rant was allegedly taken from a taped conversation in which the wrestler vehemently disparages his daughter Brooke’s black boyfriend.
The comparison of Hulk’s sordid controversy with President Obama’s candid conversation is a pretty desperate move on Hogan’s part, especially considering the deeper allegations.
Since the scandal broke last week, Hogan (real name Terry Bollea) has been working overtime on Twitter to convince people that he’s not a racist. A quick scan of the wrestling icon’s stream over the last week reveals a slew of retweets from fans and followers proclaiming that they know he’s not a racist—in spite of Hogan’s repeat use of the N-word on his sex tape. Some white fans have even tweeted pictures of themselves with their black friends in pro-Hogan tweets, which the Hulkster was only too happy to retweet.
He has also apologized numerous times since the story broke last week, but apologizing after you’ve been exposed is usually par for the course for celebrities caught up in scandals.
Even TNA, the wrestling company Hogan worked for before returning to the WWE, has scrubbed mentions of the wrestler from its website and distanced itself from him.
