"You Can't See Me," or Can You?: Unpacking John Cena's Performance of Whiteness in World Wrestling Entertainment

The racialized performances staged by World Wrestling Entertainment expose a power differential between white and non-white wrestlers, the latter of which are primarily marketed, defined, and dead-ended by racial stereotypes that stem from a trajectory of racial imagery published in print and visual media. In comparison, John Cena's whiteness, emblematic of the US nation-state, is featured through his ability to produce patriotic discourse on the microphone during the (live) televised events, but also through his hip hop clothing style glamorizing poverty to create a street-style brawler persona.