Warts and all
There's an interesting article about Ali on the London Times online site today, one that essentially takes the same line as my Ali Crap piece. The writer's main point is that as we have sainted Ali, we also have sanitized his image past the point of recognition to make it more palatable to the white American mainstream, a mainstream that probably still today would reject the historical Ali - he of the friendship with Malcolm X, he of the Nation, he of the Vietnam refusal.
It's interesting to read a piece like this from England, one that feels no (or considerably less) need to participate in the cultural deification of an African-American boxer. I like how this article's ultimate purpose is to demythologize the Champ towards the aim of giving him a more sincere respect. I also appreciate how directly the writer confronts the irony and tragedy of Ali's enforced silence:
"Who knows how Ali, freed from the terrible restrictions of Parkinson’s, would have pronounced upon the great issues that defined his era and have yet to be resolved? Who can tell how a new generation of black Americans would have reacted to his historical legacy had it not been drowned in a torrent of mushy and historically misleading sentimentality?"
The Lord of the Ring suffers as history is rewritten around him (Times online)
It's interesting to read a piece like this from England, one that feels no (or considerably less) need to participate in the cultural deification of an African-American boxer. I like how this article's ultimate purpose is to demythologize the Champ towards the aim of giving him a more sincere respect. I also appreciate how directly the writer confronts the irony and tragedy of Ali's enforced silence:
"Who knows how Ali, freed from the terrible restrictions of Parkinson’s, would have pronounced upon the great issues that defined his era and have yet to be resolved? Who can tell how a new generation of black Americans would have reacted to his historical legacy had it not been drowned in a torrent of mushy and historically misleading sentimentality?"
The Lord of the Ring suffers as history is rewritten around him (Times online)
1 Comments:
I'm inclined to agree with you on much of this. Still I always wonder about several things. How aware is Ali now, today, that his image is being so revised? Is he knowingly facilitating that process? Because look, he wouldn't be the first person to leave behind the rebel tag to enjoy some sunny golden years. He could be motivated by faith or finances. But: does he himself want us to forget the controversies? Or is it all his handlers?
Also, it's always our tendency as a society to gloss things over. Like that final scene in Destry Rides Again -- when the kids are singing that bawdy saloon song. Like Dylan doing a lingerie commercial. Eventually we take over everything and scrub away its original meaning.
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