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Vicky Muhammad VERY WELL ARTICULATED!!!! Much respect Brotha Menelik Charles
Menelik Charles with Francia Messado and 6 others.
Muhammad Ali and the triumph of Black manhood...
You know, when you lose someone you love, one often feels a sense of anger and agitation, frustration and betrayal. But all these emotions really do is conceal what is simmering beneath...and that is, a deep sense of sadness and loss.
This is how I feel right now.
It is for this reason I do not want to switch on the news to be told by white newscasters how great Muhammad Ali was...as if by saying so they magically acquire the status of courageous men and women themselves who sacrificed fortune ‘n’ fame...risked imprisonment and social ostracism... to speak up for the poor and the oppressed, to stand alongside Vietnam vets, and conscientious white college students, as Muhammad Ali had.
They would not have.
They are, therefore, a people whose ‘praise’ is as offensive as a burning cross on the lawn of a Black family’s home in a majority-white suburb. In other words, their white hypocrisy has merely filled the void of blind white hate. And their solemn-sounding words are as pathetic and soulless as a country music singer on ‘Soul Train’.
Instead they are twisted by envy and admiration because Muhammad Ali...like Martin Luther King...Malcolm X and millions of other African-American males had successfully passed the ‘Black Manhood Initiation Process’ (most famously failed by ‘Uncle Tom’) which consists of 1) standing up to power 2) standing up for your people 3) telling truth to power 4) being the best orators and 5) being hated by the white mass media of the day...as Muhammad Ali was.
White men do not reside in the ‘belly of the beast’ as Black people do...they are the ‘beast’ whose ‘Silent Majority’, led by a billionaire, seeks to ‘make America great again’ like in the south where ‘southern gentlemen’ required ‘Negro’ ladies to give up their seats to them on buses...and where Muhammad Ali was once refused service in a ‘whites only’ canteen shortly after winning a Gold Medal for the US at the 1960 Rome Olympics.
How ‘great’ is that?
A white writer, Julie Burchell, once wrote: ‘when the Negro is dignified, no man is more so’. The Black’s man dignity may come in the form of a Sidney Poiter (has there ever been a more gracious and handsome actor in Hollywood?) a Barack Obama (has there ever been a more restrained and conciliatory President than he?) a Martin Luther King (has there ever been a more Christian-hearted, American than he?) or a Malcolm X (has there ever been a greater orator in America than he?). Which brings us to the ‘Greatest’, Muhammad Ali...who was the most braggadocios, sportsman ever. But can you name a more approachable, more humble, sportsman than he?
White America works 24/7 to destroy the minds of Black males because it knows that real manhood undergoes daunting and fearsome initiations. Black manhood is faced with this initiation every day...But it’s an initiation devised by their enemies not by their tribe. Many or most fail this initiation. But those who succeed will come to represent the ‘best a man can get’. These men are always Black, and white America cannot stomach this fact.
White skin may bestow privilege and power upon you but it won’t make you an icon for people of all races and faiths around the world. Muhammad Ali is such a global icon. President JF Kennedy is not. Martin Luther King is. Billy Graham is not. Barack Obama is. Ronald Reagan is not. You see, you don’t initiate real men into manhood by way of the elite ‘Skull ‘n’ Bones Society’...you initiate psychopaths, pedophiles, and future presidents.
There is no white man in American history that can be said to represent Christian morality more so than does Martin Luther King...oratory skills more so than Malcolm X...or a conscience more so than Muhammad Ali. Bernie Sanders, decent though he is, isn’t even a lightweight by comparison. Ultimately it is the Black man who represents the best of American manhood and morality; music and dance; athleticism and cool; grace and goodwill; strength and spirituality.
White American manhood, by contrast, is represented by psycho cops; corrupt politicians; cowardly journalists; and young men vainly attempting to mimic Black vernacular, music, fashion and ‘swag’ in order to seem halfway manly to women of their own race. To such men Muhammad Ali was a figure of fascination and fun, reverence and resentment. He was a hero the likes of which their privilege and pigment will never produce...and yet they produced him.
I say all of this, and yet there has been no mention of boxing, rumbles in jungles, or thrillas in Manila. No mention of Ali’s poetry; his predictions; his prettiness; his politics, his philanthropy; his Parkinson’s; his comedy; his smile; nor of his devotion to Islam. No mention was necessary here because they all come wrapped up in the legend that was Muhammad Ali. They are what helped him transcend mere boxing. But he never transcended the people...he never wanted to.
So those weasely white-words of praise emanating from American news stations taint the great man’s memory because they are deeply insincere. Their fake sadness is really tempered by relief that another globalized symbol of Black masculinity can no longer haunt them with his presence. Well, Muhammad Ali is no longer about this life. His is of the Afterlife now...the ‘milk and honey’ of Paradise. A condition he saw white men enjoying here on earth while he suffered under their rule. Well, he suffers no more.
May Allah bless his soul.
(c) Menelik Charles.
You know, when you lose someone you love, one often feels a sense of anger and agitation, frustration and betrayal. But all these emotions really do is conceal what is simmering beneath...and that is, a deep sense of sadness and loss.
This is how I feel right now.
It is for this reason I do not want to switch on the news to be told by white newscasters how great Muhammad Ali was...as if by saying so they magically acquire the status of courageous men and women themselves who sacrificed fortune ‘n’ fame...risked imprisonment and social ostracism... to speak up for the poor and the oppressed, to stand alongside Vietnam vets, and conscientious white college students, as Muhammad Ali had.
They would not have.
They are, therefore, a people whose ‘praise’ is as offensive as a burning cross on the lawn of a Black family’s home in a majority-white suburb. In other words, their white hypocrisy has merely filled the void of blind white hate. And their solemn-sounding words are as pathetic and soulless as a country music singer on ‘Soul Train’.
Instead they are twisted by envy and admiration because Muhammad Ali...like Martin Luther King...Malcolm X and millions of other African-American males had successfully passed the ‘Black Manhood Initiation Process’ (most famously failed by ‘Uncle Tom’) which consists of 1) standing up to power 2) standing up for your people 3) telling truth to power 4) being the best orators and 5) being hated by the white mass media of the day...as Muhammad Ali was.
White men do not reside in the ‘belly of the beast’ as Black people do...they are the ‘beast’ whose ‘Silent Majority’, led by a billionaire, seeks to ‘make America great again’ like in the south where ‘southern gentlemen’ required ‘Negro’ ladies to give up their seats to them on buses...and where Muhammad Ali was once refused service in a ‘whites only’ canteen shortly after winning a Gold Medal for the US at the 1960 Rome Olympics.
How ‘great’ is that?
A white writer, Julie Burchell, once wrote: ‘when the Negro is dignified, no man is more so’. The Black’s man dignity may come in the form of a Sidney Poiter (has there ever been a more gracious and handsome actor in Hollywood?) a Barack Obama (has there ever been a more restrained and conciliatory President than he?) a Martin Luther King (has there ever been a more Christian-hearted, American than he?) or a Malcolm X (has there ever been a greater orator in America than he?). Which brings us to the ‘Greatest’, Muhammad Ali...who was the most braggadocios, sportsman ever. But can you name a more approachable, more humble, sportsman than he?
White America works 24/7 to destroy the minds of Black males because it knows that real manhood undergoes daunting and fearsome initiations. Black manhood is faced with this initiation every day...But it’s an initiation devised by their enemies not by their tribe. Many or most fail this initiation. But those who succeed will come to represent the ‘best a man can get’. These men are always Black, and white America cannot stomach this fact.
White skin may bestow privilege and power upon you but it won’t make you an icon for people of all races and faiths around the world. Muhammad Ali is such a global icon. President JF Kennedy is not. Martin Luther King is. Billy Graham is not. Barack Obama is. Ronald Reagan is not. You see, you don’t initiate real men into manhood by way of the elite ‘Skull ‘n’ Bones Society’...you initiate psychopaths, pedophiles, and future presidents.
There is no white man in American history that can be said to represent Christian morality more so than does Martin Luther King...oratory skills more so than Malcolm X...or a conscience more so than Muhammad Ali. Bernie Sanders, decent though he is, isn’t even a lightweight by comparison. Ultimately it is the Black man who represents the best of American manhood and morality; music and dance; athleticism and cool; grace and goodwill; strength and spirituality.
White American manhood, by contrast, is represented by psycho cops; corrupt politicians; cowardly journalists; and young men vainly attempting to mimic Black vernacular, music, fashion and ‘swag’ in order to seem halfway manly to women of their own race. To such men Muhammad Ali was a figure of fascination and fun, reverence and resentment. He was a hero the likes of which their privilege and pigment will never produce...and yet they produced him.
I say all of this, and yet there has been no mention of boxing, rumbles in jungles, or thrillas in Manila. No mention of Ali’s poetry; his predictions; his prettiness; his politics, his philanthropy; his Parkinson’s; his comedy; his smile; nor of his devotion to Islam. No mention was necessary here because they all come wrapped up in the legend that was Muhammad Ali. They are what helped him transcend mere boxing. But he never transcended the people...he never wanted to.
So those weasely white-words of praise emanating from American news stations taint the great man’s memory because they are deeply insincere. Their fake sadness is really tempered by relief that another globalized symbol of Black masculinity can no longer haunt them with his presence. Well, Muhammad Ali is no longer about this life. His is of the Afterlife now...the ‘milk and honey’ of Paradise. A condition he saw white men enjoying here on earth while he suffered under their rule. Well, he suffers no more.
May Allah bless his soul.
(c) Menelik Charles.
Taj Alla This is excellent! You must get this published Menelik Charles in the The New York Times
Menelik Charles Thank you Lady Taj
so much for taking the time to read my work. I really appreciate it!
Sadly, however, I've never seen myself as writing for any established
news outlet; or of being an especially talented writer.
But that's life :)
But that's life :)
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