Muhammad Ali....Friend or Foe?

He's definitely a follower to an extent. If you watch his interviews from the 60s and 70s, it seems as though he's reading off a script. Like, some of what he says is all Ali, but then the other half sounds like something Elijah would say/has said. It just sort of seems like shock value to get (white) folks talking & to keep his name in the press.

I was never really a big Ali fan, there was something about him that rubbed me the wrong way. For one, I always knew he was color struck and that just doesn't sit well with me if you are saying you are pro-black or a black nationalist.

And once I read about how he betrayed Malcolm, that was the nail in Ali's coffin for me. I could understand if he had told Malcolm that he was going to join the NOI and side with them without attacking Malcolm or just staying quite in regards to Malcolm. But the fact that Ali was calling for Malcolm's death when he had just held and played with that man's children speaks volumes about his character or lack there of.

I kind of give Ali a pass though for all the Malcolm talk because he was only 22/23 at the time and had only been a celeb for a few years. I need to go back and look at his interviews from the 70s and 80s and see if he ever mentioned Malcolm while he got older because I don't remember. It seems like after he died he never spoke of him or his family again. I think befriending Malcolm was probably just another "shock value" for Ali, but who knows.

Ali doesn't deserve a pass imo.   There is no excuse for calling for someone to die who you were just a guest in their home and holding their children etc etc.  And it was mentioned in the Malcolm thread on lipstick alley how later in the 70s or 80s Ali called Malcolm a bisexual fagg*t.  He only stopped trashing Malcolm when he got sick.smdh

I shouldn't have said shock value, but what I mean was, it seemed as though Ali used Malcolm as a come up. I think Muhammad wanted his name in the press while pissing off white people so he attached himself to the most powerful person in the game for his benefit. That fact that Ali turned on him so quickly tells me 1.) he wasn't a genuine friend to Malcolm to begin with and/or 2.) He's a follower and allowed the NOI to get in his ear. I'll go with both honestly.

And if what guys say is true as far as him calling a f*ggot up until he had Parkinson's then I just completely give up on him. I thought he was just young, dumb and naive, but if he was older and "wiser" while still saying these things, then I don't even know what to say quite frankly.

You're right. I wonder though, if Ali wasn't diagnosed with Parkinson's (and was no longer in the NOI) would he still apologize about the things he said about Malcolm?

Malcolm probably would have been disgusted seeing the way he reacted to Elijah's affairs with very young women. Ali's handlers have done a terrific job with sweeping that under the rug.