MUHAMMAD ALI
"The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up." —Muhammad Ali
"The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up." —Muhammad Ali
“Growing up in his era impacted the approach to life of every colored and Negro man. It affected how the white man, Mr. Charlie, was dealt with. Ali's distain for the boundaries Mr. Charlie set was in a style similar to the old folks' hero, Jack Johnson. These things meant a great deal. It meant life or death because white folks took it personal about a 'nigga' outa his place, and many a colored lost his job, home (sometimes) or his life over the fights between Ali and Frazier, or some white fighter and another Black fighter who like Ali defied the social construct of the times.
There was a thing white men used to say to each other in the South. “A man ain't a man ‘til he’s had himself a nigger!”
Often times them good ol’ boys used to rape Black men before they killed them. That was some sick shit, but that happened. It was terrifying; numbing. It numbed the senses the vulgarities of white racial superiority. Muhammad Ali was bold. He stood up against that sick shit. We took stock and many of us mimicked him in our daily lives. It gave us bold courage and clarity that politeness and manners could not wrestle from the larger and menacing white society. Whites understood one thing and one thing only: war, strength, blood, and power as they defined power. It took high intelligence to be a Negro, and build a life for yourself and your family.
Today there is an odd weak almost sissy like quality in the definition of manhood in the decades after the greatness of Ali's glory days in too many Black communities. I understand why, but it shouldn't be. Ali, James Baldwin, Nikki Giovanni, Marcus Garvey, Stokley Carmichael, Miriam Makeba, Pharaoh Sanders, Chuck Brown, Nancy Wilson, Adam Clayton Powell, Dr. Carver, Miles Davis, Jesse Owens, Dennis Banks, Ethel Waters, Ma Rainey, Ossie Davis, my father Herbert L. Woods, Benjamin Mays, Joan Baez, Peter Paul & Mary, even Captain Kangaroo had a hand in developing the colored into the Negro into the Black into the African-American. Those stories have not been properly handed down, and as a consequence we have the remnants of broken shards of fine pottery crying for validation instead of boys becoming men who can, unlike their grandparents, protect their manhood and their families legally. They don’t know from being told that it was against the law for a Black man to have the power to protect his family until recently, and Muhammad Ali’s boastings were not grandstanding. It was a political and spiritual act of power, of defiance, and mostly importantly an act of war against an idea of Self that did not come from Self!
It is the responsibility of every generation to validate the actions and lives of their fore parents and their champions and heroes into the lives of their children, and grandchildren in such a way the legacy of lives lived in service are honored and the momentum of change moves ever on and forward. That sums up Muhammad Ali to some degree for a soul that knows not who he or she is and where they come from. Muhammad Ali is heralded by the world, but he was foremost the mouth with the voice of his people before white America embraced him as they do now. He was pretty. His body was made not into a sacrifice, but a living testament of beauty, lethal power, rage, dance, fortitude, and raw Black masculine energy.
My word to my people Red and Black; “Conjure up the spirits of your people’s great ones in your thoughts and in your living let them live animated lives.”
These are my words, my thoughts and feelings. I am Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories.”
© Gregory E. Woods
May 30, 2012 There was a thing white men used to say to each other in the South. “A man ain't a man ‘til he’s had himself a nigger!”
Often times them good ol’ boys used to rape Black men before they killed them. That was some sick shit, but that happened. It was terrifying; numbing. It numbed the senses the vulgarities of white racial superiority. Muhammad Ali was bold. He stood up against that sick shit. We took stock and many of us mimicked him in our daily lives. It gave us bold courage and clarity that politeness and manners could not wrestle from the larger and menacing white society. Whites understood one thing and one thing only: war, strength, blood, and power as they defined power. It took high intelligence to be a Negro, and build a life for yourself and your family.
Today there is an odd weak almost sissy like quality in the definition of manhood in the decades after the greatness of Ali's glory days in too many Black communities. I understand why, but it shouldn't be. Ali, James Baldwin, Nikki Giovanni, Marcus Garvey, Stokley Carmichael, Miriam Makeba, Pharaoh Sanders, Chuck Brown, Nancy Wilson, Adam Clayton Powell, Dr. Carver, Miles Davis, Jesse Owens, Dennis Banks, Ethel Waters, Ma Rainey, Ossie Davis, my father Herbert L. Woods, Benjamin Mays, Joan Baez, Peter Paul & Mary, even Captain Kangaroo had a hand in developing the colored into the Negro into the Black into the African-American. Those stories have not been properly handed down, and as a consequence we have the remnants of broken shards of fine pottery crying for validation instead of boys becoming men who can, unlike their grandparents, protect their manhood and their families legally. They don’t know from being told that it was against the law for a Black man to have the power to protect his family until recently, and Muhammad Ali’s boastings were not grandstanding. It was a political and spiritual act of power, of defiance, and mostly importantly an act of war against an idea of Self that did not come from Self!
It is the responsibility of every generation to validate the actions and lives of their fore parents and their champions and heroes into the lives of their children, and grandchildren in such a way the legacy of lives lived in service are honored and the momentum of change moves ever on and forward. That sums up Muhammad Ali to some degree for a soul that knows not who he or she is and where they come from. Muhammad Ali is heralded by the world, but he was foremost the mouth with the voice of his people before white America embraced him as they do now. He was pretty. His body was made not into a sacrifice, but a living testament of beauty, lethal power, rage, dance, fortitude, and raw Black masculine energy.
My word to my people Red and Black; “Conjure up the spirits of your people’s great ones in your thoughts and in your living let them live animated lives.”
These are my words, my thoughts and feelings. I am Dawn Wolf, Keeper of Stories.”
© Gregory E. Woods
No comments:
Post a Comment