The unofficially crowned “Sportsman of the 20th Century” once said that “integration is wrong. We don’t want to live with the white man; that’s all.”
Muhammad Ali also said, on the topic of interracial marriage, “No intelligent black man or black woman in his or her right black mind wants white boys and white girls coming to their homes to marry their black sons and daughters.”
At the peak of his boxing career, the former Cassius Clay was equally candid about black nationalism: “Why don’t we get out and build our own nation? White people just don’t want their slaves to be free. That’s the whole thing. Why not let us go and build ourselves a nation?”
Maybe the biggest difference between Muhammad Ali and Tim Thomas is this: Ali didn’t pretend that it wasn’t about politics.
Continue reading “Actually Tim Thomas, it isn’t about you, and it is about politics.”