Do remind me again of what Ali did that compares to apparently drugging and raping over fifty women.[quote=“Mal_Tosevite, post:20, topic:79156”]
I think it’s also good to keep in mind that, like all of us, he was also a flawed man. A human being, if you will.
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Well DUH. I don’t see anyone here claiming he was literally a god or otherwise superhuman/supernatural.
Calling him a racist, womanizing homophobe isn’t the best way to show that.
To those of us who grew up in the 70s, he was a sort of god among men, or at least, amazing to see. Of course I wasn’t sitting around venerating him daily. But his death is a remembrance of his greatness when he was The Champ. Memories are okay things to have.
If this issue really bothers you much in regards specifically to Ali, I suggest reading this thread too. It contains a lot of specific notes of respect for what he did beyond (way beyond) boxing.
You keep talking about his “racism.” Because he called Frazer an “uncle Tom?” Are you claiming he hated black people? That’s not even in the realm of sanity. He was clearly a proud black man.
Are you saying he was racist against white people? Again, a swing and a miss: he was actually a very sober and reasonable critic of white America at a time when white America was really, really racist. And he paid for his principles.
The man’s not a demigod. . . but your accusation that he’s RACIST is simply unfounded. Stop repeating it as fact.
The new London Mayor actually used the expression to mean British Muslims who were prepared to over-compromise to gain acceptance, but clearly as a descriptive label. The less polite expression is “coconut”. But nobody except the most barrel-scraping of political opponents would call Khan a racist. (and the barrel scraping failed anyway, because Londoners aren’t that stupid.)
Suggesting that a section of the community should not have to deny the value of their ancestry and defer to the white man is hardly racism; it’s more or less the exact opposite.
Ahem… I beg to differ.
If you bothered to click on that link, you’ll see an original piece of artwork that I personally created more than 10 years ago, commemorating Ali’s second victory over Sonny Liston.
I drew that piece because I admire the man and what he stood for in his lifetime, and I did it long before June 3, 2016.
Maybe some people “only give a shit” because he recently died, but not ALL people, and certainly not me.
Your reductionist assessment that ‘no one genuinely cares’ seems needlessly negative.
Thank you for sharing, that drawing is fantastic.
N/p & thank you for saying so.
Yo mindreader, it’s called the human condition, and it’s perfectly normal.
Also, you don’t know shit. I have in the past few years at least a few times taken a few minutes to watch an M.Ali fight or interview on youtube and it was impressive, inspiring even though he was still alive.
Again, it ain’t a trend, it’s normal, and it’s amplified by our new technologies, which tricked you.
I listened to Bowie before he died, usually daily if I worked that day, and when he died the same thing happened, people reminisced as they will, it was amplified, and some people complained about other people being normal. But I should assume they are all gruesome bandwaggoneers for this? No, I do not.
And no, I at least would not have been discussing his racism, because that’s a bullshit claim. Complete, utter bullshit.
There aren’t enough dumb people here that they should need reminding that all people are flawed. I mean, look at your post and your choice of contextualization. Shit man, that be flawed, your reminder is redundant is redundant.
It ain’t whitewash, because things that define individuals in the public eye are not exclusive of the rest of the persons makeup.
Ali was the Greatest, because he said so and no one ever made him eat those words. Even when he lost, his opponents would concede he was the Greatest.
And when his braggadacio went beyond the world of boxing, entering into racial politics of the times, no one ever made him eat those words either. He stood up to his oppressors up to and including the government of the United States of America, then as now the most powerful human force on Earth. Few can claim to do so at all, let alone how he did it.
But what’s that?,… you say he’s not perfect…? Oh…well then… go fuck yourself.
I watched the two famous documentaries about Ali’s famous 70s fights, including the one where he calls Foreman a “gorilla” last year. I did it because Ali is interesting and relevant. He wasn’t dead then either.
When We Were Kings is a brilliant documentary, probably the best document of Ali at the height of his powers. Seeing crowds of locals chanting “ALI! BOMAYE!!” is one of the enduring images of his career. And it also puts his insult into context: this was the Rumble in the Jungle, and Ali was mocking him for being slow, dumb, and ugly as a gorilla as he called himself pretty and quick.
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