SOUTH FLORIDA – So, you are barely twenty years old, you want to know why all these people who are older than you are all worked up about the death of Muhammad Ali.
Well, it will take some telling but you may start with understanding that even hip-hop has to thank this Boxer, Muhammad Ali and liberationist for black thought for the freedom it, hip-hop, has, has had in expressing some of the thoughts the genre of music has expressed publicly.
In the still rabidly racist United States, Muhammad Ali would not take any backchat from anyone. He refused to enlist in the Army, as he says to go kill Vietnamese people who never called him the “N” word. He did it too with an eloquence and daring maybe no other athlete at that time or since could have.
He lost millions of dollars for his convictions, yet refused to give up and go away. He also forced the U.S. to acknowledge, grudgingly, that the Muslims had programs that helped people in ways not even the federal government apparently even thought about.
So when you hear the older ones talk about Muhammad Ali, take the time and enquire research how his loud mouth, sometimes filled with rhymes made your life a little easier in this time and place.
Muhammad Ali was the one Black man in this country who spoke truth to power way before the phrase was even coined and made public.
Voice your opinion on the “Open Line” with Winston Barnes daily on WAVS 1170AM or listen on-line http://wavs1170.com/
Host – “Open Line” WAVS 1170AM
Photo Credit: Leroy “Dreamy” Riley
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