opinion
80th birthday
Muhammad Ali: A fighter against black and white thinking
Muhammad Ali (left) on March 29, 1967 with Dr. Martin Luther King (right)
© Anonymous / Picture Alliance
Muhammad Ali wasn’t just a fighter in the boxing ring. The “greatest” fought against racism, for civil and liberty rights, or to put it more simply: for human rights. Today the world icon would have been 80 years old. His fight is (unfortunately) still topical.
A comment by Martin Armbruster
This article first appeared on RTL.de
“Blacks” no longer have to sit on the back benches on the bus. You also don’t have to cross the street if a “white man” is coming your way. Not in the USA, where Barack Obama, an African American, first moved into the “White House” in 2009. Not even in South Africa, where Nelson Mandela (a great Ali admirer) was elected president in the 1990s after 27 years in prison.
There is no question that something has happened in the fight against racism and for the rights of black people. And yet: around 60 years after he gave up his “slave name” and became a revolutionary as Muhammad Ali. 60 years after he thundered at the powerful and majority society in the USA that they (and not the Vietcong 10,000 miles away) were his enemy if he wanted freedom and justice. 60 years after Muhammad Ali’s political struggle that cost him his heavyweight crown, many of the problems remain.
Muhammad Ali and Black Lives Matter
There is no other way to explain why a movement was founded in 2013 that had to demand something as natural as “Black Lives Matter”. The racism toadstool is still dividing US society (and not only that!). Blacks in America are still victims of police violence x times (the x varies depending on the statistics) as often as their white “fellow citizens”.
The questions that Ali asked also resonate today when #blacklivesmatter takes to the streets: Who are we for “you”? Do “you” want us to be an equal part of society or not? Do you want to goddamn take the constitution seriously and really respect our rights?
However, one should not make things too easy for oneself in this country with a view over the Great Pond. Because those same questions are also asked in Germany “People of Color”. When they are once again the only ones to be checked in the train compartment. If they (whether when going to the authorities or when shopping) are not shown the same appreciation and attention as the majority color. Who are we if all this is still happening to us, even though we were born here and are Germans as a matter of course? The whole black and white game, 400 years plus after our ancestors (or part of them) were enslaved and kidnapped by whites? 300 years after the Enlightenment? Serious?
Hate can never win
If one wishes to honor Muhammad Ali’s legacy, one must make noble declarations such as “All men are created equal” or fill incorruptible constitutional articles such as “Human dignity is inviolable” with life. Just like he did.
Muhammad Ali isn’t the “Greatest of All Time” because of his hits in the ring. He is because he’s spent his life fighting black and white thinking — in every direction. “Hating people because of the color of their skin is wrong. And it doesn’t matter what color you hate. It’s just wrong,” the boxing champion said.
Muhammad Ali reminds us that hatred never wins!