Was Jack Dempsey racist?

The truth shall set ye free !

 

Dempsey was a product of his times, he was friendly with George Godfrey and paid for his funeral, he employed Bill Tate for years,and spoke well of Langford.

 

His fists did not discriminate and that's all that matters to me.

 

No offense, but were his fists tested against the best black heavyweights of his era?

 

He fought 4 people of color that I am aware of going 3-0-1 drawing the last one where his ribs were broken in a good s****. He sparred with many including Bill Tate, Godfrey, Jamaica kid. The fact he did not fight more people of color has more to do with the product of the times than any personel animosity in Dempsey I believe.

 

On the issue of whether Dempsey was a racist, I would definitely give him the benefit of the doubt and say no.

But the post said that his fists didn't discriminate, and actually after about 1916, they were never tested against black fighters in an actual fight.

As for getting in the ring with black fighters, he not only sparred, but he had plenty of exhibitions in his "comeback" including Bill Hartwell and Bearcat Wright, if memory doesn't betray me.

 

Yes he fought Hartwell winning by KO In one. He could not KO wright in a 4 round exhibition.

 

What is going on with your v-cash:think

 

This seems to be closest to the truth.

 

The bottom line.

Yes he would technically be racist by today's standards, but his personality probably more aligns with people who are not racist today.

If you want to understand the environment that he was brought up in, the nearest ****ogy today would be a council estate. This estate has a mixture of ethnic groups, who are suspicious of each other, and have negative banter about each other ingrained. Even so, men from separate communities form bickersome friendships, where they slag each other off.

 

Wills was really his only threat, he beat up Godfrey in sparring.

 

In some eras, that would be like asking if Wladimir Klitschko, beat the best Chinese opponents.

 

yet the Chinese haven't dominated the hw division historically in the way blacks have.

so your claim is the opposite of where the facts lie surely my friend.

 

he'd be racist, today and then, but that's not all he was, even a racist is a person with other characteristics.

opposite characteristics can sit happily in one mans head quite easily,hell, the whole of America's cultural heritage is based on a belief in equality whilst evilly owning other humans.