A history teacher friend of mine once asked me who the most famous person I ever met was. Trying to impress me, he started by saying that he met President Lyndon Johnson when he was in high school. So I said, "Muhammed Ali." With a wry grin, he said, "You win." That was the enormity of Ali. Like a faceless extra in a Tom Cruise movie, the most powerful political leader on the planet at the height of the Cold War was but a shadow compared to the fame of Ali.
I shook hands with the champ back in college after attending the world premier of Michael Mann's Ali, starring Will Smith. Since he lived in lower Michigan, he agreed to have the film first shown in my northern Indiana hometown before the nationwide release. He sat about 15 rows in front of us. We shuffled through a long line afterward to quickly greet him. I actually saw him again a few months later while I was working in a local sporting goods store. He came in with his family on a Sunday afternoon and browsed through the apparel section, as I watched from my shoe racks. Some people approached him. I kept my distance, letting him try to enjoy his privacy.
Few people in the twentieth century could claim the level of fame of Ali. His name was known across the world, and still is to this day. And his effect on America was seismic. He was beyond athlete, beyond celebrity. He was a supernatural force of charisma, a pop culture icon of self-promotion and self-confidence. He had the fastest hands, the fastest feet, and the fastest mouth in boxing history. And he was an inspiration to billions--yes, with a b.
But superstardom distorts reality. The magic of his wit, his talent in the ring, and the power of his voice has mythologized the man over time, obscuring the human beneath the bravado.
When he met with the Beatles, he called them "little faggots." He said that if whites and blacks want to date/marry, they should be killed. Like those he claimed to fight against, he was a segregationist himself. He publicly said, "Integration is wrong," and actually spoke at a KKK rally. He said, "All Jews and gentiles are devils." He was married four times, and he openly cheated on his wives. And there is much, much more.
Can we imagine any other public figure saying and doing such deplorable things, yet still being so highly revered? Perhaps worst of all was his treatment of fellow African American and heavyweight champion Joe Frazier. Frazier had a much more difficult early life than Ali, growing up in the deep South in one of the poorest towns in America. Frazier was a tireless worker who refused to blame others for his circumstances, while Ali found blame everywhere. Ali repeatedly called Frazier "Uncle Tom" and "gorilla," the worst words a black man can use toward another black man. He endless mocked Frazier as being dumb, despite Ali's own IQ being 78, only a few points above clinical mental retardation. And this behavior came after Frazier defended Ali's decision to avoid the Vietnam War and fought for Ali to have his license reinstated. While Ali later said he regretted some of his treatment of Frazier, Ali never personally apologized to him. Classy, indeed. And why this, when Frazier defeated Ali in their first fight, is one of my favorite sports photographs of all time. The lesson: when you run your mouth, don't be surprised when someone knocks you on your ass.
Ali later regretted some of the rhetoric of his younger years, claiming people at age 50 don't believe as they did when they were 20. Fair point, perhaps. But does anyone think for a second if Barack Obama at age 25 denounced integration and befriended the KKK that Fox News would just attribute those beliefs to youthful indiscretions? Does anyone think for a second that if Donald Trump at age 25 said a black man should be killed if he tried to marry a white woman, MSNBC would simply let that slide? Yes, foolish perspectives evolve, but let's not pretend that such perspectives never existed.
Just this week, Hillary Clinton took a jab at Donald Trump in a speech for "reminding us daily just how great he is." Funny, Ali constantly declared his greatness, and his boasting is considered praiseworthy. Arrogance is arrogance and buffoonery is buffoonery, no matter who is doing it.
Ali did put his money where his mouth was, choosing to face the punishment of losing his livelihood for avoiding the draft. However, many of the positions he took for which he was deemed so brave were largely illogical, or at least not philosophically consistent. One of the reasons for why he didn't want to go to Vietnam was because he had never been personally harmed by the Viet Cong. This naive statement ignores the fact that the Nazis didn't do anything to America either. Does that mean we should never have stopped Hitler's rampage across Europe? This comment also implies that if something doesn't personally affect you, then you don't have to be involved. But that goes against his reasoning for black justice. After all, if a black person in the 1960s were to have said, "I get along fine with white people. They've never harmed me," then Ali and his ilk would have screamed "Uncle Tom" and been critical of their blackness (as he did with Joe Frazier). The credit he currently receives for his position on avoiding war as a religious conscientious objector is an interesting one as so many others today have tried to rebel against State mandates on grounds of religious objections, yet they have been met with labels as bigots and misogynists. Finally, his denunciation of the draft was a valuable one. But he should have made his case for all people's right not to be ordered by their government to surrender their liberty and march into violence, not just the rights of blacks or Muslims. This is a philosophy anyone could get behind (as I do), but he squandered this valuable opportunity. Therefore, Ali's perceived heroism is actually limited by his own lack of imagination and moral consistency.
This post is not to trample on the memory of a beloved figure on the day of his funeral. Ali was one of the greatest athletes is history, and he should be remembered as such. He was an admirable philanthropist, for which he deserves respect. He was a voice against the draft and for civil rights, which everyone recognizes. These are the reasons I chose to shake his hand all those years ago. But we must be careful with idolizing. Ali was a tremendously flawed person, as we all are. He did great things, and he did awful things, as we all do. He was himself. However, sadly, a strong argument could be made that that was what he cared about most, at least during his boxing years.
I shook hands with the champ back in college after attending the world premier of Michael Mann's Ali, starring Will Smith. Since he lived in lower Michigan, he agreed to have the film first shown in my northern Indiana hometown before the nationwide release. He sat about 15 rows in front of us. We shuffled through a long line afterward to quickly greet him. I actually saw him again a few months later while I was working in a local sporting goods store. He came in with his family on a Sunday afternoon and browsed through the apparel section, as I watched from my shoe racks. Some people approached him. I kept my distance, letting him try to enjoy his privacy.
Few people in the twentieth century could claim the level of fame of Ali. His name was known across the world, and still is to this day. And his effect on America was seismic. He was beyond athlete, beyond celebrity. He was a supernatural force of charisma, a pop culture icon of self-promotion and self-confidence. He had the fastest hands, the fastest feet, and the fastest mouth in boxing history. And he was an inspiration to billions--yes, with a b.
But superstardom distorts reality. The magic of his wit, his talent in the ring, and the power of his voice has mythologized the man over time, obscuring the human beneath the bravado.
When he met with the Beatles, he called them "little faggots." He said that if whites and blacks want to date/marry, they should be killed. Like those he claimed to fight against, he was a segregationist himself. He publicly said, "Integration is wrong," and actually spoke at a KKK rally. He said, "All Jews and gentiles are devils." He was married four times, and he openly cheated on his wives. And there is much, much more.
Can we imagine any other public figure saying and doing such deplorable things, yet still being so highly revered? Perhaps worst of all was his treatment of fellow African American and heavyweight champion Joe Frazier. Frazier had a much more difficult early life than Ali, growing up in the deep South in one of the poorest towns in America. Frazier was a tireless worker who refused to blame others for his circumstances, while Ali found blame everywhere. Ali repeatedly called Frazier "Uncle Tom" and "gorilla," the worst words a black man can use toward another black man. He endless mocked Frazier as being dumb, despite Ali's own IQ being 78, only a few points above clinical mental retardation. And this behavior came after Frazier defended Ali's decision to avoid the Vietnam War and fought for Ali to have his license reinstated. While Ali later said he regretted some of his treatment of Frazier, Ali never personally apologized to him. Classy, indeed. And why this, when Frazier defeated Ali in their first fight, is one of my favorite sports photographs of all time. The lesson: when you run your mouth, don't be surprised when someone knocks you on your ass.
Ali later regretted some of the rhetoric of his younger years, claiming people at age 50 don't believe as they did when they were 20. Fair point, perhaps. But does anyone think for a second if Barack Obama at age 25 denounced integration and befriended the KKK that Fox News would just attribute those beliefs to youthful indiscretions? Does anyone think for a second that if Donald Trump at age 25 said a black man should be killed if he tried to marry a white woman, MSNBC would simply let that slide? Yes, foolish perspectives evolve, but let's not pretend that such perspectives never existed.
Just this week, Hillary Clinton took a jab at Donald Trump in a speech for "reminding us daily just how great he is." Funny, Ali constantly declared his greatness, and his boasting is considered praiseworthy. Arrogance is arrogance and buffoonery is buffoonery, no matter who is doing it.
Ali did put his money where his mouth was, choosing to face the punishment of losing his livelihood for avoiding the draft. However, many of the positions he took for which he was deemed so brave were largely illogical, or at least not philosophically consistent. One of the reasons for why he didn't want to go to Vietnam was because he had never been personally harmed by the Viet Cong. This naive statement ignores the fact that the Nazis didn't do anything to America either. Does that mean we should never have stopped Hitler's rampage across Europe? This comment also implies that if something doesn't personally affect you, then you don't have to be involved. But that goes against his reasoning for black justice. After all, if a black person in the 1960s were to have said, "I get along fine with white people. They've never harmed me," then Ali and his ilk would have screamed "Uncle Tom" and been critical of their blackness (as he did with Joe Frazier). The credit he currently receives for his position on avoiding war as a religious conscientious objector is an interesting one as so many others today have tried to rebel against State mandates on grounds of religious objections, yet they have been met with labels as bigots and misogynists. Finally, his denunciation of the draft was a valuable one. But he should have made his case for all people's right not to be ordered by their government to surrender their liberty and march into violence, not just the rights of blacks or Muslims. This is a philosophy anyone could get behind (as I do), but he squandered this valuable opportunity. Therefore, Ali's perceived heroism is actually limited by his own lack of imagination and moral consistency.
This post is not to trample on the memory of a beloved figure on the day of his funeral. Ali was one of the greatest athletes is history, and he should be remembered as such. He was an admirable philanthropist, for which he deserves respect. He was a voice against the draft and for civil rights, which everyone recognizes. These are the reasons I chose to shake his hand all those years ago. But we must be careful with idolizing. Ali was a tremendously flawed person, as we all are. He did great things, and he did awful things, as we all do. He was himself. However, sadly, a strong argument could be made that that was what he cared about most, at least during his boxing years.
When I was a kid, a basketball coach of mine used to tell us a story of how his childhood sports hero let him down and to this day lives a legacy of disgrace (his favorite athlete had been Pete Rose). The point was that we should not exalt athletes. We should not pretend that they are larger than life, more important than the rest of us, that they should be our guides for how we should live. This was a cynical lesson to learn as a pre-teen, but my coach was right. Just look at the myriad scandal-ridden athletes we've seen in the last 20 years. Celebrities--be they athletes, musicians, politicians, or anyone else--can only be role models to a limited extent. There are more important people in our lives for that.
Muhammad Ali will be missed, and his talents as a boxer will never be forgotten. But let us remember that taking a stand for our beliefs is one thing. But doing it with grace, humility, and integrity is quite another. Be very careful upon whom you place your admiration.
For an excellent analysis of Ali's complicated and not-so-admirable life, and his turbulent relationship with Joe Frazier, check out this brilliant HBO documentary from a few years ago:
Muhammad Ali will be missed, and his talents as a boxer will never be forgotten. But let us remember that taking a stand for our beliefs is one thing. But doing it with grace, humility, and integrity is quite another. Be very careful upon whom you place your admiration.
For an excellent analysis of Ali's complicated and not-so-admirable life, and his turbulent relationship with Joe Frazier, check out this brilliant HBO documentary from a few years ago: