Can you condemn Mohammad Ali for his racist views?

He died. He no longer can state his views.

 

Neither can Hitler, so I guess we should have stopped condemning Hitler after 1945, eh?
We are condemning a "great man" (Ali) who was a blatant racist....if we can't condemn racists then we are hindered in our efforts to end racism.

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Again, I'm completely stunned by the responses on this thread - people can't seem to bring themselves to condemn a racist. I thought we were better than this.

 

People ought to be ashamed of themselves for giving a racist a pass just because he was a great athlete.

 

You know me better than that. I don't have to jump through your hoops if I don't like or trust them. I can condemn a racist, but I won't condemn one that you pick for me on evidence you picked out. I am not on this forum to impress you.

 

Ali was a member of the separatist Nation of Islam until 1975 when he became on orthodox Muslim and renounced all racism.

If you don't forgive Ali for his past mistakes, then don't forgive Saul of Tarsus for killing Christians even though he renounced his actions and was later called St Paul.

 

Dood, I think everyone has figured out that something else is goin' on here. You are far too obsessed, fixated and unhinged about the "Ali was a racist" thing. Far, far out of proportion.This is obviously personal in an also obviously very disturbing way for you. Good luck with your demons, brother. Inshallah.

 

Brilliant and enlightening!!

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Amen to that!!

 

Now, if you were concerned with women's rights and gay rights, we'd see lots of occasions when you would express that concern when those rights are threatened by conduct today. You are only concerned with what dead people said and did, and only when you can tie it directly to a biblical or religious passage. If there is a thread about a victim of 'gay bashing' or discrimination or a thread about women denied equal pay TODAY, you come nowhere near it. That is because you are not concerned about women's rights or gay rights. You are concerned with slamming religion through the use of religious texts. Lets see. When was the last time you posted a passionate plea for same sex marriage rights? When was the last time you posted about women denied access to abortion, because clinics have been closing across the south, and Midwest secondary to state bills that harass them out of existence. What have you said that mattered about real people in real situations all over this country?

 

Without even watching the video, I can say with certainty that anything Ali said against whites was probably true of at least some of them back in the time that he flourished.

 

False outrage is a much bigger problem than racism.

 

Keyboard warrior condemns one of the worlds greatest boxers as rascist based on you tube video.

Keyboard warrior fails to show any compassion for the terrible way white society treated black men when boxer was growing up, keyboard warrior does not acknowledge that boxers views changed radically as he became older, until he condemned racism.

Keyboard warrior probably lacked the balls to get in the ring with the boxer even when he was old and past it.

Keyboard warrior doesn't understand harsh realities of world in the past, thinks his freedoms were won by other keyboard warriors and not imperfect real warriors.

 

No I will not condemn him, and that's solely based on him being a product of the 60s and 70s when the Civil Rights Movement was still going on and black people were putting their lives on the line to not be treated like (*)(*)(*)(*).

 

As always, you can't bring yourself to condemn a racist.
Perhaps someday you'll love humanity enough, like I do, to summon the moral courage to say "of course I condemn Ali for being racist." Keep in mind ALI is the racist, not me.

 

Yes, I could do more in that direction, but the UNDERLYING cause of the hatred towards women and gays (etc.) is a bigger concern than just one incident of hatred. When "the best person in world history" (Jesus or Mohammad, some believe), was ok with gays being killed, and never stood up for women's rights, then THAT approval needs to be changed. Your solution is more of just a band-aid, a temporary fix, rather than cutting the problem off at the root.

It's kind of hard to be concerned about same-sex marriage rights when Muslims believe that Mohammad was correct, was a great role model, when he said to KILL ALL GAYS. Their attitude won't change until their UNDERLYING belief is changed - that Mohammad was the final and best prophet of god. Your way is much less effective. Well intended, but less helpful. Kind of how Atheist Cat finds your prayers.

Have a great week.

 

Maybe there was some hate in mohammed speeches but we must think of him as someone who grew up discriminated for being a black, in a nation still full of anti black racism. The rage gave him focus and that's why he became grand champ.

 

One man's (Ali) blatant racism is not as big of an issue as the incredible inability of forum member to condemn said racism.
I'm losing my faith.....my faith in humanity. I guess if someone can punch people hard enough that they get a "get out of jail free card" when it comes to being a racist.

 

I don't need to google it, I remember it when it happened. He made his conversion to Islam with the intention of using it to avoid being drafted. Very convenient.

 

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Everybody knows that blacks can't be racists! Right? Right?

He was a black supremacist. He was not just against whites, but other races - he said he would not want his kids marrying outside their black race.

 

Pretty hypocritical of you to be mad at Ali for his supposed racism but not mad at the society that pushed its racist views onto him in the first place. Back in his day it would be pretty hard to like white people when things like "colored rooms only" were a dime a dozen and black people got fire hosed.

 

I'd imagine if a White boxer said such racist things, his racism would be more publicized, and he wouldn't be glorified.

White privilege in a nutshell.

 

A cop taught Muhammed Ali to box when he was 12 because some kid stole his bicycle.

I don't think Ali was a racist or even particularly angry. I think he had a certain simple clarity.. that he didn't want to fight and perhaps die for a country that denied black people equal rights .

 

He was racist towards other religions, too.
You don't fight racism with MORE RACISM, my friend.
Ali would have been better off as a Modern Secular Humanist rather than as a Muslim - Islam teaches supremacism, MSH of course does not.

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Then you haven't seen the video clips of him in that one video.

 

No, based on Ali's actual statements in said video. Not just the commentary in the video, but in the actual words coming out of the champ's mouth.

I admire intellectual courage far more than in-the-ring courage. Ali certain had the latter, but not the former.

A real hero doesn't counter racism with more racism, like Ali did.

You can't condemn the racist Ali for his racist statements, can you? If not, you are part of the reason that racism is so common today. #AllLivesMatter, but Ali didn't fully understand that, as he was an Islamic supremacist, and a racial supremacist. Don't give him a pass just because he had a wicked right hook.

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He was racist against other races, not just the oppressive white race, he was a black supremacist - no different than the KKK are white supremacists.

 

Excellent post, one of the best on this thread.
Yes, double standard, and blatant hypocrisy on the part of what appears to be the MAJORITY of forum members!

Giving blacks a pass on their blatant racism is as bad as giving whites a pass on their blatant racism.
Giving white plantation owners a pass on their acceptance of slavery is just as bad as giving Jesus a pass on his acceptance of slavery (Jesus had more influence in the world than any plantation owner, ever.) http://www.evilbible.com/evil-bible-home-page/slavery/

 

I don't know what you mean by condemned, he's dead so I can't do a thing to him. If you mean point out that character flaw then sure, he held views that are aberrant and offensive to me. That doesn't diminish him, in my eyes, it makes him human with human flaws who developed at a flawed time that enforced a flawed perspective.

It doesn't make him a monster unworthy of praise, though it is something that shouldn't be ignored.

Surely you realize that history would have pretty few great people if we let today's opinion of their views supersede their significance. If people who were great (like Ali was) were judged solely by how well their views fit in with today's thinking, very few of humanities finest (such as Ali) would be worthy of consideration. Like when we talk about, say, Washington (slave-owner).

In this case Ali was an unabashed racist, which is terrible, but as far as actually using his power to inflict harm on others, I don't see it. Compared to other racists of the time he is more of a "Keep to your own kind" as opposed to "Your different from meand you should suffer for it" kind of racist. Still terrible and offensive (I am mixed race myself it saddens me terrible to know that Ali would've thought that abhorrent), but considerably less worthy of "condemnation" IMO.

All of this, of course, is irrelevant since he went on to condemn his own racist views and move past them later in life. I'm not going to judge someone who just said mean things then later admitted they were wrong.