Racism in the World of Boxing

I used to go to the M/S/Garden and felt forum and watch Puerto Ricans and Dominicans and brother what wars outside the rings also I remember going to watch Irish Walter Seely and Jose Fernandez( what great fights they had) and there were wars in the stands...also Golota vs Bowe but there were also a lot of beer drinking at these fights ( not a good mix) I have seen a lot of racial remarks by various groups. I remember a group of troublemaking black guys at a fight looking for trouble yelling racal slurs after a white guy left in a strectcher...they were looking for trouble and I had my young son with me...anyway there were a bunch of pretty well known boxing people that moonlight as bounchers went over and gave them an ultimatum which they responded to quietly. I hate racial boxing because the guys in the ring really respect each other for the most part...why should fans feel different...there is something called ethnic pride and thats fine but dont disrespect the men in the ring because of color or ethnic origin

 

That all the Mafia cared about. The only color they cared about was green. It wasn't the Mafia that was racist. The paying customers at the time (probably a white majority, but I may be wrong) wanted to see fighters of their own race fight and win. I guess that in itself is racism but it is not the hateful kind. No different than Mexicans wanting Mexicans to win, Asians wanting Asian fighters to win....etc..... I believe that it was more a case of wanting to feel proud of one's race than a hate of other races IMO. Of course, as always there where exceptions.....ie People who wanted to see another race to get beaten up, but I do not believe that the majority thought this way.

Of course the Jack Johnson era and earlier was different.

 

Right, it's the self-identification that people have with fighters. with athletes, with musicians and actors and even politicians, anyone who's doing what they would do if they could. Ninety-nine out of a hundred people aren't inherently racist or hateful or evil or bad, they're just lost.

 

oh yes ,and why lamotta and other white middles didn't have to go near ezzard charles.he would have whupped them all.
if you want to find out about racism in this country,google TURPIN and find out about dick turpin . the boxing news,in 1939 wanted to know why "britain was still dragging its feet on the colour bar,"despite not being eligible to fight for a british title he was ok to don khaki and fight with the desert rats.
his brother jackie and both sisters also went into the services.it wasn't until 1948 (i think) that dick got his chance.
THE FIGHTING TURPINS -BRITISH LIONS

 

I quite agree ,I was at the Minter Hagler fight ,when things got very ugly,bottles being thrown from above etc,rooting for your guy is acceptable but racial slurs and insults have no place in sport ,or indeed society,and drag the Noble Art in the mud ,particularly when scenes like that are televised around the world.

 

Seriously consider starting with Jack Johnson's title reign with a focus on the Jeffries fight. You had former HW champions and American celebrities like Jack London tossing racial slurs like penny candy.

* Don't make the common mistake of suggesting that Johnson threw the Willard fight. He didn't.

After Louis, the racism gets murkier. He opened the door in a big way for black fighters to start competing on more equal terms. Racism was and is still apparant, but it is on a more specific basis, it is not so institutionalized and flagrant as it once was.

Louis had a precursor in Tiger Flowers. Flowers was called the "whitest black man in America" and was loved by all although it was because he was the anti-Johnson in every way. He was very humble and religious, generous and gracious, even in the face of sheer robberies like the Mickey Walker fight.

 

The black dynamite crew was iced by Jack Johnson, who used the color line to his own advantage.

In truth, even Joe Louis, and Sugar Ray Robinson used the color line a bit.

It was not only white fighters who used the color line.