230411_SUPER_ALI_FINAL_MugClub.mp3

Speaker1: [00:00:10] Now, when it comes to the all time greats, a few names probably come to mind Jordan Gretzky, the babe who was a guy, but maybe none are more revered or have been more immortalized than Muhammad Ali. Now, the photo taken from this fight by John Rooney is arguably the most famous sports photograph of all time. Muhammad Ali is one of those sports figures who not even just he transcends the world of sports. He left a legacy permanently etched into really American culture at large. But what if the legacy that you know or that you think you know is wrong? So go with me here for a second. Some of you are going to be upset by the first half of this presentation, and then some of you are going to be upset by the second half. So depending in which group you find yourself, I ask you to either fast forward or rewind to the portion that you find acceptable, as this is usually how we process complex historical figures in order to make them more palatable to our modern echo chamber sensibilities. Just do that. Before Ali was the Ali, you know, he was known as Cassius Clay. Then in 1964, Cassius Clay ditched his slave name and joined the Nation of Islam. Now, please note, the Nation of Islam is important here. It's not the same as Islam and not representative of all Muslims. We'll come back to that later. So Ali converted actually after he was handed a newspaper cartoon outside of a skating rink in Louisville, Kentucky. The cartoon illustrated how white slave owners brutally beat their slaves while insisting that they pray to Jesus. The message Christianity was the religion of the oppressive white establishment. I like that cartoon Ali wrote. It did something to me and it made sense. Now, after his conversion, Clay changed his name to Muhammad Ali. Under the advice of Elijah Muhammad, the leader of the Nation of Islam.

Speaker2: [00:02:38] Why do you insist on being called Muhammad Ali now? That's the name given to me by my leading teacher, the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. That's my original name. That's a black man named Cassius Clay was my slave name. I'm no longer a slave. What does it mean? Muhammad means worthy of all praises, and Ali means most high. Do you intend to fight under that name? Yes, sir. I want to be called by that name. I write autographs of that name. I want to be known all over the world as that name, especially throughout Asia and Africa, because that's the names of our people over home.

Speaker1: [00:03:07] Now, here's the thing about Elijah Muhammad. Don't let the name fool you as he was, in fact, intensely racist. He believed that white people were actually created by Yakub, a black scientist. Elijah even believed that Allah had allowed the devilish race to hold power for 6000 years, but that the 20th century was the time for less satanic black people to assert themselves. Elijah, unsurprisingly, was a huge proponent of racial segregation.

Speaker3: [00:03:34] Would you disagree that it is the ambition and the goal of most Negroes in this country to become Americans in every meaning of that word, to participate in our society, to be responsible, legitimate, honest citizens? Isn't that the goal of the overwhelming number of Negroes in this country? It may be the goal, Mr. Cup, because that they don't even know, as I just said, that this is the time that they should be going for self and lack of knowledge of the time, the lack of knowledge of self, the American so-called Negro, especially the leading class, do not actually know themselves.

Speaker1: [00:04:21] Little known fact about Elijah, also a proponent of tiny hats. And during this period in his life, of course, Muhammad Ali also was an advocate of segregation.

Speaker3: [00:04:34] People got scared. You got bad all of a sudden, right?

Speaker2: [00:04:37] Overnight. I was a good boy when I was howling. I am the greatest. I cannot be beat. I am pretty. I'm the king. Hee hee hee hee. I was a good boy. But when I said I'm a muslim, my religion is Islam. What's wrong with that? You have 600 million Muslims on earth, and Muslim only means one who submits entirely to the will of God. Allah and Islam only means peace. Entire submission to God.

Speaker1: [00:05:02] And during this time, Muhammad Ali's views on interracial marriage were not great. As he noted in a 1975 Playboy interview, while requesting that John Wayne kindly hold his beer, a black man should be killed if he's messing with a white woman. And not just white men. Black men, too. We will kill you and the brothers who don't kill you will get their behinds whipped and probably kill themselves if they let it happen. And don't do nothing about it. Tell it to the President. He ain't going to do nothing about it. Tell it to the FBI. We'll kill anybody who tries to mess around with our women. Ain't nobody going to bother them. And when questioned by the interviewer about a muslim woman wanting to date outside of the faith, Ali said, then she dies. Kill her, too. At one point, Martin Luther King Jr. Even called Ali a, quote, champion of segregation. Now, here's the interesting part. This is precisely the period in Ali's life for which he has received the most praise and veneration in the media, because it's these same beliefs that played a huge role in Ali's refusal to serve during the Vietnam War. In 1967.

Speaker2: [00:06:17] At the induction ceremony, Ali refused to step forward When his name was called over, a Navy lieutenant.

Speaker4: [00:06:24] Explained the penalty should he be found guilty of refusing induction a $10,000 fine and up to five years in prison. Given another chance to step forward, Ali refused again.

Speaker3: [00:06:39] Ladies and gentlemen.

Speaker5: [00:06:41] Mr. Muhammad Ali has just refused to be inducted into the United States Armed Forces.

Speaker1: [00:06:46] And back then protesting the war. It was like catnip for media as opposed to today. We're advocating war over there in Russia and Ukraine. So here, Ali was actually sentenced to and wrongfully sentenced to five years in prison. He had a $10,000 fine and a three year ban from boxing. Then his case was appealed and eventually overturned by the United States Supreme Court in 1971. And it's at this time in his life that Ali was venerated into a civil rights progressive, anti war folk hero, a reputation which the media desperately wants to highlight and cling to to this day. Now, here's something you may have forgotten. Muhammad Ali wasn't just an impressionable young racist in his personal life, though he was. He even profited a lot from using blatant racism against other black opponents. And no, no, no, no. I'm not talking about the kind of racism that sparks outrage today in the form of unprovable dog whistles. Ali's prejudice was more of a. A racist bullhorn blaring atop a bigotry percussion set supported by prejudicial woodwinds and a particular target of Ali's rage and racist vitriol was one of its most notorious rivals. Joe Frazier. Now, Smokin Joe Frazier is an interesting character. He actually had a really hard upbringing in poverty in the Deep South, whereas Ali came from a middle class background, and Frazier actually gave Ali $1,000 when he was bankrupt during the Vietnam War protest to cover his expenses. The two men fought three times with Ali beating Frazier twice. And if you watch on Mug Club, we'll get to some opinions on that. Ali also demonized Frazier routinely in blatantly racist terminology. Things like 98% of my people are for me. They identify with my struggle. If I win, they win. If I lose, they lose anybody. Black who thinks Frazier can whoop me is an Uncle Tom. Ali also called Frazier himself and Uncle Tom and lobbied the black community to view Frazier as a race traitor. In 1974, this all came to a head with Ali and Frazier getting into an on air scuffle on the wide world of sports with famous host Howard Cosell.

Speaker2: [00:09:23] That's when he went to hospital. Now, so don't talk about. Bringing up a hospital, Like I said about my hospital, they don't want to mention it. I went to hospital for ten minutes. You went for a month. Now be quiet. At that point.

Speaker3: [00:09:39] Ali said to him, You're ignorant.

Speaker2: [00:09:40] Sad? What difference? Why did you bring up the hospital? I went to the hospital.

Speaker3: [00:09:44] And Joe stood up.

Speaker6: [00:09:46] Ripped off his microphone and said, What do you mean I'm ignorant?

Speaker2: [00:09:51] Sit down, Joe. Why do you think I sit down? Joe sat down quick. Think I'm brothers? Are here to sit down quick, Joe.

Speaker3: [00:10:03] Well, we're having a scene, as you can see, and it's hard to tell whether it's clowning or for real between the two fighters.

Speaker1: [00:10:09] Before the October 1975 Thrilla in Manila, which was the final meeting between the two boxers, Ali even compared Joe Frazier to a gorilla bringing out props.

Speaker2: [00:10:20] I'm going to give him a real whoopin. And I wrote a poem. Some of you heard it, but this is a little conscience. I got a little gorilla here. This is his conscience.

[00:10:29] I keep him right in my pocket everywhere I go back there. And I wrote him a short poem. It says, It will.

Speaker2: [00:10:36] Be a killer and a thriller and a killer.

Speaker1: [00:10:39] When I get the gorilla in Manila, the fight would come to be remembered as one of the most brutal in boxing history.

[00:10:53] I'm going to get up on the ring.

Speaker3: [00:11:14] I'm up in the ring here and Muhammad Ali is pretty well spent.

Speaker7: [00:11:19] And I'm going to try to get over at him. Where we're trying to get in here to talk to Ali, who has retained his title. And I think he needs a little air because this has to have been one of the most bruising heavyweight championships of all time. Interesting aside.

Speaker1: [00:11:42] Here. But a lot of people don't know about this fight is that Ali actually wanted to throw in the towel while Frazier, who was basically blind at this point in one eye and blinded in the other eye by Ali's effective jab. He was protesting against it, telling his cornerman that he would never forgive him if he threw in the towel. At the same time, Ali was demanding that Dundee cut off his gloves. Here's how ESPN reporter Ben Blackmore described it. In one corner sat Frazier almost blind in both eyes, pleading with trainer Eddie Futch to not throw in the towel. In the other was Angelo Dundee, reaching for his own piece of cotton to end Ali's misery in the face of what surely qualified as human torture. Futch was the man to get the referee's attention ahead of Dundee, retiring Frazier just a handful of seconds too early to unwittingly give victory to Ali, who as a wrecked shell of a human being, could barely acknowledge his triumph even after their athletic rivalry ended. Rather than forgive and forget, Joe Frazier was so upset by Ali's race baiting and turning the black community against him that he carried that animosity with him to his grave. Speaking in the 1990s at an event in Philadelphia, Frazier said of Ali, who by this time was already suffering tragically from Parkinson's disease.

Speaker1: [00:12:58] We locked up three times. He won two and I won one. But look at him now. I think I won all three. Even when Ali was tapped to light the Olympic flame at the 1996 games in Atlanta, Frazier said to a columnist in the Philadelphia Inquirer, If I would have been on the platform with him, I would have thrown him into the flame. Frazier also remarked in his 1996 autobiography, Truth is, I'd like to rumble with that sucker again, beat him up piece by piece, and mail him back to Jesus. Now, people ask me if I feel bad for him now that things aren't going so well for him. Nope, I don't. Fact is, I don't give a damn. They want me to love him. But I'll open up the graveyard and bury his ass when the Lord chooses to take him. So it could be argued that Frazier was less forgiven, forget than he was. Remember forever. And ruminate over violent, felonious revenge fantasies. Here's the thing. Frazier was not an outlier. It was kind of Ali's calling card. Ali played up racial divides versus a lot of opponents, a George Foreman being one of them during the famous Rumble in the Jungle in Zaire in October 1974. Before the fight, Ali said regarding Foreman, who waved the US flag at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, which is a whole story in its own right.

Speaker1: [00:14:18] I'm going to beat your Christian ass, you white flag waving bitch. Also, that famous chant in Zaire, Ali Bumaye that translates to Ali, kill him. Here's the thing. People make mistakes. People change. Ali was no exception. After his return to the United States, a reporter asked Muhammad Ali, Champ, what did you think of Africa? To which Muhammad Ali responded, Thank God my granddaddy got on the boat. So Ali's redemption began in early 1975. And by redemption, I mean the part of this story and majority of his life, which those in legacy media desperately attempt to memory hole and want you to ignore. It's around this time. He left the Nation of Islam, denounced the teachings of his former peers in favor of the more mainstream and peaceful Sunni Islam. Ali wrote in a 2004 biography, The Nation of Islam taught that white people were devils. I don't believe that now. In fact, I never really believed that. But when I was young, I had seen and heard so many horrible stories about the white man that this made me stop and listen. Ali's daughter, in fact, told PBS that her father softened his heart later in his life and expressed his views about what they viewed as the one true religion, the religion of the heart.

Speaker8: [00:15:40] One of my father's favorite sayings was rivers, lakes and streams all have different names, but they all contain water. So do religions have different names, but they all contain truth. He always taught me that there's only one true religion, and that's the religion of the heart. He would say. And as long as you do right and you treat people right, I believe you'll go to heaven no matter what you call your religion.

Speaker1: [00:15:59] Here's a kicker that most of you don't know at all. Ali also became more conservative throughout his life, even going so far as to endorse Ronald Reagan. Now, Ali had originally endorsed Jesse Jackson, which is kind of a flip. So when asked why he announced his support for Reagan, Ali told reporters he's keeping God in schools. And that's enough for context. This endorsement is after Ronald Reagan rebuked Ali's desire to reinstate his boxing license when he was still the governor of California back in 1970, saying, forget it, that draft dodger will never fight in my state. Now, before you say, oh, it's just the lesser of two evils and their friendship isn't already painfully clear, here's Reagan and Ali together at the White House during his 1983 re-election campaign. If the idea of Ali endorsing the arguably whitest of the most modern presidents surprises you, how about Ali actively campaigning for possibly the whitest human being who ever lived? Because that's exactly what Ali did for Orrin Hatch, a white a very white Mormon Republican from Utah. And they maintained actually a lifelong friendship. Ali, speaking on Hatch, said, man, he's one of the most effective leaders in the US Senate. Any time he wants me to be there, I'll be there. I think he's the greatest, greatest with a capital G. I know some of you may say that these two political actions from Ali were outliers. Maybe they were yet another phase based on individuals he liked rather than being reflective of his changed values. But Ali was remarkably consistent for the rest of his life.

Speaker1: [00:17:40] Even up until 2015, when the terror attacks that killed 130 people in Paris. Ali released a statement condemning Islamic radicalism, which in and of itself may not be reflective of what we're discussing here. But stay with me, he said. I am a muslim and there is nothing Islamic about killing innocent people in Paris, San Bernardino, or anywhere else in the world. True, Muslims know that the ruthless violence of so-called Islamic jihadists goes against the very tenets of our religion. Now, that would seem like something that most could be on board with. Here's the kicker The media headlines tried to frame that quote as a jab aimed directly at then candidate Donald Trump and his Islamophobia, despite the fact that Ali never mentioned his name. This is from The Guardian. Muhammad Ali defends Muslims in response to Donald Trump's ban plan from Vox. One of Muhammad Ali's final public statements refuted Donald Trump's Islamophobia from the beacon of truth. That is the Associated Press. Ali responds to Trump's call to ban Muslims from entering the United States. Donald Trump, however, never believed that it was directed toward him, saying, No, that wasn't about me. Now. Now this is where the context matters. The easiest thing for Ali to do when being given a layup from the progressive media warping and speculating, the easiest thing would have been to say nothing instead. The Ali family also made it clear through one of their official spokesman, Bob Gunnell, they went out of their way to clarify that the statement was in fact not directed at Mr.

Speaker1: [00:19:18] Trump, but exclusively at extremists and jihadists. Again, many of you probably don't know this, but this wouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who knows that President Trump and Muhammad Ali. They had a long standing friendship, including Trump receiving not one but two awards from Muhammad Ali during his lifetime for charitable donations. Donald Trump also threw a birthday party for Muhammad Ali in 1988, with invites being sent out to over 500 guests. In 1991, Trump left a divorce negotiation with Ivana to speak at an awards dinner for. For Ali in New Jersey and then went back. Ali, also, by the way, attended Donald Trump's wedding to Melania back in 2005. And far from the young Nation of Islam disciple who advocated the execution of race mixers, traders, Muhammad Ali became a dedicated and consistent humanitarian and actual peace advocate, helping people worldwide to advance freedom, justice and equality. Ali was the largest single black contributor ever to the United Negro College Fund. I can say the word because it's in the name. It's a racist acronym. Ali actually donated $0.50 of every ticket for his closed circuit television title match against Chuck Wepner to help the drought stricken Sahel region of West Africa. Interesting aside here, that fight was being watched by Sylvester Stallone and became the inspiration for none other than Rocky and putting the politics of his younger days aside. Ali even helped stop a Vietnam veteran from attempting suicide.

Speaker3: [00:20:52] The hooded man shouted, I'm no good. I'm going.

Speaker9: [00:20:55] To jump. The Vietcong are coming at me. Police, a psychologist and a minister, had all but given up trying to change the despondent man's mind. When Muhammad Ali, who happened to be nearby, volunteered to talk to him, the former heavyweight champion, went to a window and reportedly yelled, I'm your brother. I want to help you. Recognizing Ali, the man finally opened the fire escape door and Ali approached him on the ledge. It was a very tense 20 minutes. Several times it looked as though Ali was going to fail. Then suddenly it was all over. The man, Ali said later began to weep. He was taken to the psychiatric ward of a veteran's hospital. The former champ promised to visit him there later this week.

Speaker1: [00:21:43] So like I said, certain portions of this video will rub a lot of you the wrong way. I know that. And other portions will irritate an entire separate segment. But when it comes to Ali and his life's transformation, it's the truth, a truth that I find heartening and more Americans would benefit from knowing. But the equally disturbing truth is that many of you I'm willing to guess most of you probably are hearing a lot of this for the first time, because the truth, as inconvenient as it may be, has been obfuscated by our media and the entertainment industry's lies. And that begs an important question Why does the mainstream media actively ignore Ali's transformation from the hateful and bigoted young man that the Nation of Islam turned him into, as opposed to the compassionate, conservative leaning humanitarian he came to be? And if he's one of the most iconic civil rights sports heroes to the black community in American history. How does it benefit the black community? How does it benefit America at large to ignore his redemption? Could it be because that very redemption coincides with a very inconvenient? Why could it be that the reason an inspiration for Ali's renouncement of his former racism runs counter to the narrative that our entertainment and media industrial complex desperately want you to believe is the reason that racism still exists today in the first place. Whether it's Ebenezer Scrooge, the Apostle Paul, hell, even Robert Byrd in a transformation story in a redemption arc, the why is as important as the figure themselves. So why did Muhammad Ali change so dramatically? And why do most people not know about it? Leave a comment. Talk about it below. I'm genuinely curious to hear your opinions and if some of this is new information. Now, granted, there is plenty for which to critique the man, Muhammad Ali, and there's plenty that he did right. It's complicated, like many historical figures, but it is impossible to doubt Muhammad Ali, formerly Cassius Clay's lasting impact on America at large or his greatness.

Speaker2: [00:24:01] I have wrestled with an alligator. I don't tussled with a whale out in handcuffed lightning throw thunder in jail. That's bad. Only last week I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick. I'm so mean. I make medicine sick. Man, Dude, man. Fast, fast, fast. Last night, I cut the light off in my bedroom. Hit the switch. Was in the bed for the room was dark. Incredible. Fast. Incredible. And you, George Foreman. All you chumps are gonna bow when I whoop him. All of you. I know you got him. I know you got him picked, but the man's in trouble. I'm going to show you how great I am.