NXT North American and world champion Keith Lee recently spoke to TalkSport to talk all things pro-wrestling, including his stance on social issues and Black Lives Matter. Highlights from the interview can be found below.
Being supported by Triple H and Vince McMahon for his stance on social issues:
I haven’t honestly talked to anybody in the company as a whole. But I know that there are people like Triple H who 100% support me and my expression of it.I know that Vince [McMahon] is perfectly fine with me and Kofi [Kingston] taking the knee, raising our fist and things of that sort. I’m sure that there is an open-mindedness in it – I don’t know what it will be in terms of education, but there are people here who are more than willing to be the education or offer a place to learn from. All it takes is being a little open minded and a wish to be an actual, decent human being.
Says he would love to do a WWE angle on race but only if it was done right:
There are ways you have to look at this. If they are going to present it as an educational tool, then it needs to be factual. That is the most important point. There are so many people who won’t do their research to get those facts or find out where to get those facts. Now, there are so many ways that one can ‘portray’ race. ‘Is it educational?’ – that would be the one thing I’d ask as, then, I would be 100% comfortable with it, I would be open to that.
How certain people need to educate themselves on BLM and open up their minds:
At the end of the day, some people view Black Lives Matter as a scenario that is trying to raise black people above others, and it really has zero to do with that. But if people would just take time to educate themselves, or to allow themselves to be open-minded enough to learn, they’ll understand that a lot of the history that we’re taught in the States is a fallacy. It’s something that’s painted to make others feel better about our history, but it is truly unfortunate. There are some really questionable things and things that have been woven into our system… it’s wrong, and a lot of it is coming to light. I think some people are afraid, and I think some people don’t want to accept that it’s true because, as they say, the truth hurts.