More on antidiscrimination law vs. First Amendment

[Volokh, Eugene]

        Any thoughts on the following?  (I'm specifically referring to the
hostile environment and stereotyping claims, not the discriminatory pay
scale claims.)


        From Mooneyham, "Wrestlers File Discrimination Suits," Charleston
Post & Courier, Feb. 17, 2000, at C5:

. . .

   A pair of African-American wrestlers and an Asian manager are taking
[World
Championship Wrestling] to the mat - a courtroom more specifically - over
claims
that the Atlanta-based company treats minorities unfairly.

  "Hard Body" Harrison (Harrison Norris), Bobby "Hard Work" Walker and Sonny

Onoo (Kazuo Onoo) recently filed racial discrimination lawsuits in federal
court
in Atlanta, claiming that blacks are cast as thugs, pimps and "Uncle Toms,"
and
Asians as sneaky and greedy.

   The suits, which name WCW and TBS as the defendants, allege the wrestling

outfit violated federal racial discrimination laws, humiliated minorities
and
created a hostile work environment.

   "You look at all the wrestlers, and you look at the African-American
guys,
and they're not being paid the same amount as the other guys there,"
attorney
Merrick Bernstein said. "They are all directed to act to perpetuate the
traditional stereotypes."

   . . .

   Bernstein said the majority of minority performers in WCW - characters
and
storylines aside - were being negatively portrayed and were not paid in line

with their white counterparts. He cited Booker T (Booker Huffman), a member
of
the original Harlem Heat duo, as an example of a black WCW performer whose
character was being exploited.

   "The guy is arrested in the middle of the ring last week and charged with

attempted murder, and they are saying it's the first time any wrestler has
ever
been arrested in the ring before.

   "Bobby (Walker) is trying to work under his 'hard work' sort of image,
and if
you look at all the minority wrestlers who are performing in WCW, they're
all
wrestling under the guises of pimps, criminals, drug pushers, thugs. You
can't
point to one single minority wrestler that has a good, clean image."

   Also on the wrestlers' legal team are Cary Ichter and former Georgia
Attorney
General Mike Bowers, who campaigned for governor of Georgia in 1998 on the
issue
of ending affirmative action programs.

   Bowers, in a published report last week, accused the media of hypocrisy
for
promoting racial stereotyping at the same time it condemns the practice in
Major
League Baseball.

   "These are the same people looking to penalize John Rocker for doing what

is in these complaints," Bowers said. Rocker was suspended from baseball
until
May 1 for racially offensive comments he made to a reporter last year.

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