Did You Fear That Ali Would Have Been Assasinated During The 1960s?

Discussion in 'Classic Boxing Forum' started by Hydraulix, Feb 2, 2011.


  1. janitor

    janitor VIP Member Full Member

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    People try reduce the significance of Johnsons win over Jeffries due to Jeffries condidtion, but the reality is that a lot of top fighters and some all time greats would have cracked mentaly in that ring and lost the fight.
     
  2. McGrain

    McGrain Diamond Dog Staff Member

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    And Nelson Mandella was at the helm of an organisation that placed burning tyres around the necks of zulus.

    "One man's freedom fighter is another's terrorist."

    I have no problem with someone labelling Ali a civil rights activist. He unquestionably "did his bit".
     
  3. Unforgiven

    Unforgiven VIP Member banned Full Member

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    What has Mandela and the ANC got to do with it ?


    As far as I'm concerned the civil rights movement of the 1960s was concerned with integration, the vote and the end of Jim Crow segregation. And Civil Rights activists sought equality and justice within the American system.

    Elijah Muhammad and his NOI followers weren't just lukewarm on those issues, they vehemently opposed some of them.
    Even Malcolm X was ostracised and pushed out for becoming involved in that form of struggle.

    The NOI platform preached for STRONGER segregation, a separate black homeland, no mixing with whites at all ..... and await the visit from the spaceship !
    :lol:
     
  4. Primadonna Kool

    Primadonna Kool Obsessed with Boxing Full Member

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    Whos seen this..?


    [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ec0NNjCMuQ[/ame]
     
  5. janitor

    janitor VIP Member Full Member

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    Why could you not have a branch of the civil rights movment that did not pursue greater integration?
     
  6. McGrain

    McGrain Diamond Dog Staff Member

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    Ali was an extremist. Later, he was a moderate. This is also true of Mandella and the ANC.

    The major difference is the extremes to which the ANC went to to make their point - far more extreme than anything Ali and his muslim chums did. But nobody contradicts Mandella's status as a civil rights kingpin (rightly).


    Then you have a very narrow view of what the civil rights movement - or any civil rights movement ever, really - is.

    The Black Muslims were the inevitable "social terrorist" wing of a freedom movement.

    Obviously the spaceship is lunacy, but i've always felt that the joke was on the people who laughed at it rather than the people who "believed" it.
     
  7. Il Duce

    Il Duce Boxing Addict Full Member

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    Muhammad Ali had more to fear from his first wife, than anyone else.

    Nobody was interested in taking Muhammad Ali out, he was harmless.
    Nobody really took him seriously, on the political or religous stage.
     
  8. janitor

    janitor VIP Member Full Member

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    I have to disagree on all counts!
     
  9. Unforgiven

    Unforgiven VIP Member banned Full Member

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    Ali was controversial but I don't think he was a major threat to the establishment. Once they'd taken away his licence to fight his audience was very limited.
    The anti-war stance bothered the establishment, but his NOI-affiliation wasn't a problem.

    It's more of a wonder how Jane Fonda never got assassinated.
    :lol:

    As for Jack Johnson, I guess he went where he was welcome and stayed away from where he wasn't. Boxers in those days were expected to be rogues. Johnson's a truly inspiring character.
     
  10. Unforgiven

    Unforgiven VIP Member banned Full Member

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    You could have, but why the eagerness to lump Elijah Muhammad and the NOI into that position within the "civil rights movement" ?

    I mean, these people didn't go on the civil rights marches or even have anything nice to say about those who did.
    The NOI were a NEW RELIGIOUS CULT with black separatist leanings, it was insular ...... they were not part of a wider movement for social justice.
    Maybe I'm wrong, but no one has demonstrated how they were part of the Civil rights movement. And the evidence shows that when Malcolm X started to veer in that direction he was pushed out, slandered , and eventually murdered.
     
  11. Il Duce

    Il Duce Boxing Addict Full Member

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    I do agree with MR. UN,

    Jane Fonda was more hated
    and so were the Yippie's.

    Just who would want to take out Muhammad Ali,,,for what reason.
    Muhammad Ali was old news in 1968.
     
  12. Unforgiven

    Unforgiven VIP Member banned Full Member

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    The ANC's struggle ended white minority rule, and that's that.

    I have no gripe with extremists being included in various struggles, it's a fact.
    Sinn Fein and the IRA were involved in civil rights too, as far as I know.

    I don't think Elijah Muhammad and the NOI are comparable to terrorists/freedom fighters, nor do I think they were involved in the civil rights movement.



    I think the Black Panther Party played that role. They were nothing like the NOI, communists if anything.
    They were partly inspired by Malcolm X's later position, and took an active revolutionary role, they were very political.
    What did Elijah Muhammad and the NOI do ? The same thing they'd been doing since the 1930s, they certainly weren't advocating revolution or rocking the boat. They were recruiting more followers, buying up land, building mosques and big houses for their "prophet", who repeated the same old stories.


    Maybe, but the bulk of Elijah-era NOI literature is a variety of other stories of similar or more bizarre tone.
    I mean, real fruitcake stuff.
     
  13. McGrain

    McGrain Diamond Dog Staff Member

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    Why? They were fighting for freedom.



    They demanded equality in recognition from a State that regarded them as second class. They spoke, furthermore, of the black male's superiority in an environment where even claiming equality was difficult (hence, social terrorism).

    They played an extremist role in a political dialogue.

    But i'm not talking about Elijam Mohammad and the NOI. I'm talking about Ali, have been since this conversation began. He was a member of that organisation but he had his own man, too.


    Sure, but it doesn't have any real relevance here.
     
  14. PowerPuncher

    PowerPuncher Loyal Member Full Member

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  15. Bokaj

    Bokaj Obsessed with Boxing Full Member

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    Good discussion. I do see Unforgiven's point, but it's not really a black and white (pardon the pun) issue. I'm unsure as to whether I'd say the NOI was in (their own way) fighting for civil rights or not. I'd probably say "no", since they were first and foremost separatists. Unforgiven also makes a good point about Malcolm X being shunned (and then shot), even though that undoubtly was partly due to a good ol' power struggle.

    As an anectode, shots were fired at Ali's training camp when he was tranining for Quarry I. No one was injured, but it gave them a scare.