Guest Post: How Muhammad Ali is Leading the Fight against Racism

Muhammad Ali (Source: Wikipedia)

The young amateur boxer known as Cassius Clay had just won the Amateur Athletic Union light heavyweight and Golden Gloves heavyweight championships in 1960, and his star was rising. Oftentimes confident (and brash as well), he won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division during the Olympics.  When he turned professional, Clay defeated opponents left and right with such ease that it inspired of the most famous Muhammad Ali quotes: "I am the greatest!" Little did Ali or the world knew that his words were prophetic.

A Brief Look in Muhammad Ali's Life

Boxer, philanthropist, and social activist Muhammad Ali was born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr., on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky. For all of the achievements that he has made in the boxing ring, Ali made his mark by fighting racism that was rampant during his time. He summed it best about the maltreatment of blacks in his time when he refused to go to Vietnam. Muhammad Ali quotes: “Why should I go 10,000 miles from home for them to tell me that I put on a fatigue, then rain bullets and drop bombs on the Brown Vietnamese while my fellow African-Americans in Louisville are treated shabbily like canine and their simple human rights denied?” After he retired, Ali became a philanthropist dedicated to serving others.

Muhammad Ali vs. Racism

During his time as a boxer Ali was aware that his fellow blacks were discriminated on and he saw the great divide that separated blacks and whites when it came to job opportunities, housing, and educational standards. The white supremacist group known as the Ku Klux Klan made it worse, terrorizing blacks by threatening to burn them at the stake, by cutting them down mercilessly, and committing unspeakable torture.
For this reason, Ali refused to fight the Vietnamese because he felt that the white-dominated establishment had no God-given right to dictate to him on whom to fight because they were racist themselves, and hypocritical. His actions won him enemies but far more people supported his cause.

Why his fight against Racism Matters

Many people often interpreted Ali’s fiery speeches and outlandish comments as nothing but arrogance. However, a study showed that for all the braggadocio that Ali exhibited in his commentaries, the rhetoric that he used actually was an effective tool to fire up the imagination of the people—especially his fellow blacks. Moreover, he pushed for non-violent ways that would let him fight the figures in government, as well as the racist ideals that pervaded America at that time.

Muhammad Ali’s fight against racism really mattered because this went beyond his accolades in the ring. The battle was about winning the war against racism and military adventurism.

Muhammad Ali once famously said: “Despising other races because of the color of their skin is an abomination. Moreover, it is insignificant on what color hates. It's simply just wrong.” For millions of people abroad, and in the heart of America, this statement was truly a uniting force, and Ali has stamped his class as a true icon and an American champion for the cause of people who wanted equal rights regardless of color and race.

The man may have Parkinson’s now but this is a small price to pay for the legacy that he has left for future blacks.

This guest post is a courtesy of David, marking director of Famous Quotes Index, a website containing close to 30,000 famous quotes and citations from renowned authors.

Posted in: Black Power,History,Racism