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DemocratSinceBirth

(99,705 posts)
Mon Jun 6, 2016, 12:40 PM Jun 2016

"Muhammad Ali: Never the White Man’s Negro."






CASSIUS CLAY, born in 1942, was the grandson of a slave; in the United States of his boyhood and young manhood, the role of the black athlete, particularly the black boxer, was a forced self-effacement.

White male anxieties were, evidently, greatly roiled by the spectacle of the strong black man, and had to be assuaged. The greater the black boxer (Joe Louis, Archie Moore, Ezzard Charles), the more urgent that he assume a public role of caution and restraint. Kindly white men who advised their black charges to be a “credit to their race” were not speaking ironically.



And yet, the young Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali refused to play this emasculating role. He would not be the “white man’s Negro” — he would not be anything of the white man’s at all. Converting to the Nation of Islam at the age of 22, immediately after winning the heavyweight championship from Sonny Liston, he denounced his “slave name” (Cassius Marcellus Clay, which was also his father’s name) and the Christian religion; in refusing to serve in the Army he made his political reasons clear: “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Vietcong.”

And yet, the young Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali refused to play this emasculating role. He would not be the “white man’s Negro” — he would not be anything of the white man’s at all. Converting to the Nation of Islam at the age of 22, immediately after winning the heavyweight championship from Sonny Liston, he denounced his “slave name” (Cassius Marcellus Clay, which was also his father’s name) and the Christian religion; in refusing to serve in the Army he made his political reasons clear: “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Vietcong.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/06/opinion/muhammad-ali-never-the-white-mans-negro.html?ref=opinion&_r=0
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"Muhammad Ali: Never the White Man’s Negro." (Original Post) DemocratSinceBirth Jun 2016 OP
Good article! Read it a couple of hours ago and Kind of Blue Jun 2016 #1
The paradox is though he was unapologetically and unabashedly black he loved everybody DemocratSinceBirth Jun 2016 #3
Very, very powerful. Fantastic Anarchist Jun 2016 #7
He exemplifies freedom so much. That statement is so powerful. Fantastic Anarchist Jun 2016 #5
Yeah, the operative word is freedom. Kind of Blue Jun 2016 #10
Cheers to you! Fantastic Anarchist Jun 2016 #11
... Kind of Blue Jun 2016 #12
ali was every racist white person's nightmare beachbum bob Jun 2016 #2
K&R ismnotwasm Jun 2016 #4
K&R brer cat Jun 2016 #6
Ali gave "respectabiltity politics" the finger before it even came to be known as such. Number23 Jun 2016 #8
At a time when it was (still) quite dangerous, Mr. Ali refused to "know his place" YoungDemCA Jun 2016 #9

Kind of Blue

(8,709 posts)
1. Good article! Read it a couple of hours ago and
Mon Jun 6, 2016, 12:47 PM
Jun 2016

I was going to post starting with the last paragraph

Ali had long ago transcended his own origins and his own specific identity. As he’d once said: “Boxing was nothing. It wasn’t important at all. Boxing was just meant as a way to introduce me to the world.”

Wow, if I could learn to live half that truth of just BEing I'd die happy.

DemocratSinceBirth

(99,705 posts)
3. The paradox is though he was unapologetically and unabashedly black he loved everybody
Mon Jun 6, 2016, 12:56 PM
Jun 2016

The paradox is though he was unapologetically and unabashedly black he loved everybody regardless of race, religion or creed... Think about that. Why? Because he was so comfortable in his own skin.

Kind of Blue

(8,709 posts)
10. Yeah, the operative word is freedom.
Wed Jun 8, 2016, 09:39 AM
Jun 2016

Sometimes hard to keep firm in our mental states but never hard to find and model with Ali as an example. Here's to a life well lived

 

beachbum bob

(10,437 posts)
2. ali was every racist white person's nightmare
Mon Jun 6, 2016, 12:47 PM
Jun 2016

a brash smart confident black american at a time white america didn't see any color but white

Number23

(24,544 posts)
8. Ali gave "respectabiltity politics" the finger before it even came to be known as such.
Tue Jun 7, 2016, 02:22 AM
Jun 2016

And when Ali turned his back on the Vietnam war, they should qualify that by saying WHITE crowds and WHITE people booed. It only made (most) black people love him more.

 

YoungDemCA

(5,714 posts)
9. At a time when it was (still) quite dangerous, Mr. Ali refused to "know his place"
Tue Jun 7, 2016, 04:03 PM
Jun 2016

And for that, we can be eternally grateful.

RIP to a giant.

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