from menelik charles on facebook
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.
VERY WELL ARTICULATED!!!! Much respect Brotha Menelik Charles
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