Culture

Three Times Muhammad Ali Proved He Really Was The People’s Champion

'The Greatest' in more ways than one

by Sam West  4 June 2016

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Muhammad Ali has died at age 74. True sporting champions tend get their words and faces frozen on inspirational gym posters. Then the rest of us try sprint to catch up to their greatness. But Ali was more than just a boxing champion, he helped change the course of history for the better. Here are three instances when he proved he really was the People’s Champion:

The Time He Conscientiously Objected To The Vietnam War

Mohammed-Ali

This is the thing you’ll always hear people mention but it’s worth taking a moment to think about how difficult it must’ve been for African-American Muslim to stand up to The Man in such an incredibly badass way during the Vietnam War.

Ali originally failed the IQ requirements to be in the armed forces (“I said I was the greatest, not the smartest,” he once said). But in 1967, after changes to the rules of conscription made him eligible to be drafted, he conscientiously objected saying: “No, I am not going 10,000 miles to help murder, kill, and burn other people to simply help continue the domination of white slavemasters over dark people the world over. This is the day and age when such evil injustice must come to an end.” (He also summed the whole thing up a bit more succinctly by telling reporters “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong—no Viet Cong ever called me n***r.”)

His stance led to him being stripped of his title and banned from boxing outright when he was in his prime. But ultimately it helped inspire millions of civil rights and antiwar activists. Even Martin Luther King – who’d been mostly keeping quiet about the war out of concern he’d damage political support for civil rights – began speaking out after Ali took a stand. He kept making a stand his whole life and became the official ‘UN messenger of Peace’ to Afghanistan 2002. 

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The Time He Lit The Olympic Torch In Atlanta

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In 1984, after a decades spent suffering head trauma from his opponents, Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. By 1996 Parkinson’s had well and truly taken hold. But, despite the fact he’d built so much of his image around being the most perfect unbeatable physical specimen on Earth, he still to the took to the sporting world’s biggest stage and lit that giant torch with trembling hands.

But that was just the brave televised gesture. He also spent his life visiting soup kitchens and helping out other charities including his own Parkinson’s Centre in Arizona.

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That Time He Took On Trump

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In 1962 Ali joined the Nation of Islam and remained a vocal ambassador for Islamic rights ever since. Malcolm X was a regular member of his entourage for a time, which kind of proves how serious Ali was about getting shit done.

In December last year after Donald Trump proposed banning Muslim immigration to the US, Ali told NBC: “We as Muslims have to stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda. They have alienated many from learning about Islam. True Muslims know or should know that it goes against our religion to try and force Islam on anybody.”

Let’s just hope his words can keep changing the course of history for the better.