If you didn’t know that Hulk Hogan died last week, then you’ve been living under a rock, brother, and while many celebrated the “loss,” others were lost in their grief over someone who represented greatness during their childhoods. The reason for the division is obviously Hogan’s gratuitous use of the inward and his assertion that he was a bit of a racist. For those who don’t remember, the Hulk went on a racist tirade about the possibility that his daughter, whose now-defunct pop career was surely facilitated by the Blacks, could be dating a Black man. Most specifically, Black people are giving other Black people the side-eye for mourning his passing, people like Marlon Wayans, for instance.
Wrestling is like soap operas for men, and men of all races grew up with Hulk Hogan as their hero.
He was big, orange, wore a bandana and frequently showed off his man boobs with one rip of his shirt. He was fierce, magnetic, a superhero and a layman at the same time. His character was not just easy to like, but he was easy to love, but that’s just it. It was a character. Terry Bollea was the man behind the ripped shirt and the terrible personality looming underneath, but the thing is, when people love you, even if it’s not the real you, you have more access to do harm without being hated.
Gym influencer and a man with 5 million followers on one platform alone, Joey Swoll, made a video about his decision to post about Hulk Hogan, because he did some bad stuff, “20 years ago.” The man known for holding people accountable in the gym can’t even fathom why posting someone who got CAUGHT saying the inward repeatedly would be problematic. The word caught is important because, of course, you didn’t hear him saying it in public, because he had an image to uphold, because all the little Black boys who weren’t good enough for his daughter in his eyes could use their eyes to gaze upon him in awe. Not to mention, in his video, Joey uses the word “colored,” like in 2025. He didn’t use it in a demonstrative or even ironic way. This man was more serious than a deadlift. While Joey did end up apologizing and taking down his posts honoring Hogan, it goes to show you that racism was still excusable to him, as long as the statute of limitations had passed.
People are complex; no one leaves this life without any blemishes on their permanent record, but being outwardly racist and asserting that you are racist is a big fucking deal. The interesting part is that his racist rant was discovered during a leak of his sex tape.
Now, you supposed to be busy cheating on your wife, how did niggas get in it?
Hulk Hogan is the reason that the WWE does not have a union. At the age of 17, his son Nick paralyzed his former best friend while racing in a 40-mph zone in one of his father’s vehicles. Nick, who was found to have alcohol in his system at the time, was wearing his seatbelt; therefore, he only suffered minor injuries, in comparison, the product of great parenting, surely. Hulk Hogan was a liar, including that time he said he was offered to be the spokesperson for the George Foreman Grill, but the man who made the grill said he had never heard of the Hulk. He claimed that Elvis was a big fan of his, the same Elvis who died days after his first match, and that he was offered the opportunity to be the bassist for METALLICA…LMAO.
He was not a man of his word, while his death doesn’t need celebration, his life surely lacked the criteria for strangers to be openly mourning it, especially Black people. Terry Bollea didn’t cure cancer, he didn’t bring awareness to social issues, in fact, at a Trump rally, he said he would body-slam Kamala Harris. There are so many more valuable things to mourn than a man with a bad hairline and a disgust for Black people.
Mourn the tan M&M, mourn the fact that there will never be a second season of Seven Seconds, or a third of Euphoria. Mourn Southwest’s old baggage policy, but please, for the love of God, let racists receive the silence from Black people in their death, that they wanted from us during their lives.
