Xavier Woods on New Day's Use of Pancakes, African-American Stereotypes

WWE SmackDown Live Superstar Xavier Woods of The New Day recently spoke to Newsday.com. When speaking about The New Day always having pancakes and whether it portrays an African-American stereotype, Woods said that the pancakes aren't about stereotypes, but was actually a result of New Day being involved in a Lumberjack Match a while back:

“I said, ‘Well, if I’m a lumberjack, what do they eat? They eat flapjacks.’ It was hilarious. So, we said the next week, ‘Are we going to do pancakes? Yeah, sure. Why not?’ And that’s where the pancakes came from,” Woods said. “If there’s ever any source of contention or anything like that, I think that it’s a situation where you should take a look at yourself and think about how deep you are looking into something that’s not really there.”

Woods said he and his fellow New Day stablemates, Kofi Kingston and Big E, are “very aware of how we present ourselves,” but they don't want people to think of anything racial “simply because we are African-American males.”

“All we want is a blank slate,” Woods said. “And if people continue to refuse to give us one, then they’re doing nothing more than continuing to hold up the social constructs that we’re trying to break down.”