According to a story from Bloomberg Law, a lawsuit has been filed against WWE, Vince McMahon and other executives for allegedly discriminating against a Black female writer for objecting to “offensively racist and stereotypical jargon” that was used in scripts for “Black wrestlers including Bianca Belair and Apollo Crews.”
Bloomberg News wrote:
Britney Abrahams’ multiple complaints were ignored, and she was pretextually terminated for taking home a WrestleMania-branded chair, according to the complaint filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York on Monday.
Abrahams started working for both Raw and SmackDown in 2000, per the complaint. One of the things referenced in the complaint was Belair allegedly being instructed to say, “Uh-Uh! Don’t make me take off my earrings and beat your ass!” It was also stated that Crews was told to speak with a “stereotypical and exaggerated Nigerian accent.”
Abrahams also said that after she complained that she was subject to “a number” of racist pitches and on a Slack thread with Vince and daughter Stephanie McMahon included, “other writers suggested a Black male wrestler should dress in drag” but the pitch was scrapped when a White writer said that this could “perpetuate harmful stereotypes that would offend viewers.”
In another instance, it was proposed by a writer to have a Muslim wrestler’s secret revealed to be that he was “behind the 9/11 attacks.”
Abrahams said she was fired after opposing “racist, sexist pitches” and she is seeing “reinstatement, damages, declaratory judgment, and an injunction restraining defendants from engaging in such unlawful conduct.”
WWE has yet to respond to the lawsuit. Click here to read the story on Bloomberg Law.
