Muhammad Ali was a racist & That's A-OK!

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This is going to be a sketchy thread. Try not to bomb the discussion with unthinking outrage.



Warning for those sensitive to racist opinions, this video contains clips of Muhammed Ali being Muhammed Ali. Long and short of the video is it's time to grow up and stop worrying about being accused of racism (something I have been accused of in this forum I recall).

he was a huMAN and NOT an angel. nothing more should be expected from any human. he did try to atone.

He really was a nice guy. He fell under some bad influences.

When it came right down to it, he was no militant. He was a showman.

in one of his boxing matches, he proudly wore a robe given him by Elvis Presley.

I'm not surprised.

I was surprised, not at ali but at elvis palling up with ali, as elvis was not known for being a big fan of black folk, aside from their music.

The racial views of Muhammad Ali should be understood within the context of his generation and their struggles.

By today's standards, certainly, Ali's views would be considered radically divisive. But this was the 1960's, when black people were heavily oppressed and discriminated against, not only in North America but all over the world as well. I can hardly fault Muhammad Ali (and Malcolm X, Louis Farrakhan, etc.) for the rage and resentment they felt toward white people.

Of course, I say this as an outsider looking in. I wasn't even alive during the segregation years, and I'd be interested to hear the opinions of older people (let's say, 60 and above) on this site.

In the 1960s, in the South--and especially before the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed, very few black people were allowed to register to vote in many Southern states.

They had to pass a "literacy" test. The test might consist of, say, the recitation of the entirety of Article One of the Constitution.

All a white person might have to do is read a few words from a book.

some of the tests involved saying how many bubbles were in a bar of soap. we could very well be headed backwards to those days, sooner than we think.

It was very difficult to be a black person in the US throughout our history.

It has gotten somewhat easier since the Civil Rights days--but there's still a long way to go.

if the rump gets in and he packs the court with troglodytes, the voting rights act will soon be history and it will be back to literacy tests and counting bubbles in bars of soap.

I can see the potential for this should Trump get elected.

But I believe cooler heads will prevail. Even conservative Republicans will probably seek to block at least some of his measures.

^^^you're more optimistic than I am.

And the Joint Chiefs will hide the Nuclear Button.

It's known that the Pentagon isn't too thrilled with him.

I understand it's been a long time since any military here was outright insubordinate. anyways, to get back to the thread topic, I wonder what ali thought of all this?

Obviously, Ali wouldn't be too thrilled with Trump's rhetoric about Muslims.