OH You Love Muhammad Ali? But You Want Beyonce and Kanye West to Shut-up?
I find it interesting that so many anti-black, anti-muslim, xenophobic people are praising the greatness of Muhammad Ali. These are the same people that complain about Beyonce’s Superbowl performance. Conservative America lost its mind when Queen Bee showed respect to the Freedom Fighters of her culture. Police officers condemned Beyonce for acknowledging the activists fighting against police abuse of power. How can you hate Beyonce and love Ali?.
How can you tell Kanye West to shut up and say Ali is the greatest of all time (Even of All Times)? Ali became known as the greatest not just because he was the best athlete in the world but because he said he was the greatest every time he got in front of a mic or camera. Yes Kanye has a big ego, yes he’s loud, yes he’s in your face but so was Ali.
Kanye West had the courage to call out The President of United States for ignoring the people of New Orleans. Beyonce had the courage to embrace a movement that has been criticized by the police and mainstream America. If you can’t stomach their political statements there is no way you can say you are a fan of Ali because no “entertainer” of color has been more in your face about condemning America’s racist political crimes than Muhammad Ali.
50 years ago most Anglo-Americans wanted Ali to shut up but he just kept winning and kept talking. He didn’t apologize.
Today America and the world mourn the death of Ali, he’s being celebrated as an individual that transcended race and culture. However Muhammad Ali once lost everything for his political stance. He rejected his European name, Christianity, and the false idea of white superiority.
Ali joined the Nation of Islam, started a friendship with Malcolm X, and openly and consistently called out racism and zionism. The champ was a bold beautiful bronze man that would not shut up. In the latter years of his life Parkinson’s disease silenced the once verbose champion. This was the Ali White America could accept-Samson with his hair cut off.
It would be hard to imagine a world figure like Michael Jordan or LeBron James giving up their career in their prime and facing the possibility of prison time to fight for a radical, anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, and anti-racist cause. But that is just what Muhammad Ali did. At a time when most so called blacks were afraid to openly challenge Euro-Judeo-Christian norms Ali flaunted his culture as superior.
Some may wonder why Beyonce and Serena are unfazed by their critics. Others want to know why Kanye, Cam Newton, and Richard Sherman won’t shut up. Because America takes every chance it gets to harass, beat, rape, lie on, imprison, and humiliate people of color. So those that make it to the center stage want you to know that they deserve to be there and that they are there because they worked harder than anyone else in the world.
If you think the Beyonces, Kanye Wests, Cam Newtons, and Serenas of the world are bold, brash, and have big personalities you’re right. If you are not a person of color living in a racist, capitalist, Euro-centric country you have no idea what it’s like to live in a world where the political, religious, education, and entertainment(Hollywood) systems treat you as inferior every day of your life. In America and the other lands of our captivity, people of color are treated as nothing at worst and as sidekicks at best.
Ali’s greatness did not stem from the fact that America or white people accepted him, it came from the fact that he didn’t give a damn about America’s acceptance. What Ali cared about was his family and his people-the oppressed, people of color. He didn’t need mainstream approval.
And Beyonce, Ye, Serena, and Cam don’t need your approval either. The day of living to entertain and please our oppressors is over. Ali was a trailblazer. He didn’t live to see capitalism and racism crumble to ash but we will and we are grateful for his contribution to the struggle.
Thank you for showing us how to fight Champ!
“I’m the king of the world, I am the greatest, I’m Muhammed Ali, I shook up the world, I am the greatest, I’m king of the world, I’m pretty, I’m pretty, I’m a baaaad man, you heard me I’m a baaad man, Archie Moore fell in four, Liston wanted me more, so since he’s so great, I’m a make him fall in eight, I’m a baaad man, I’m king of the world! I’m 22 years old and ain’t gotta mark on my face, I’m pretty, I easily survived six rounds with that ugly bear, because I am the greatest.” — Muhammad Ali
