GLADIATOR REPORT //
THURSDAY // NOVEMBER 16, 2006
A World Champ 'n A World Chump
by Del Jones, the War Correspondent
Since Jack Johnson used to dust off slow footed and sluggish punching white boys to dominate the heavyweight division, the championship has meant a lot to our people as a source of upliftment against the anti-Afrikan propaganda that belittles us before the world. It meant so much to us we looked the other way on any other short comings the champs had. Just the idea of legally kickin' a white boy’s ass and getting paid for it made it an extraordinary event. Although, many times a Black versus Black kind of conjured up slave matches that saw whites betting slaver master earnings as two Black men fought to the death, biting, scratching and kickin' to survive the enemy's damn prize fighting.
I came along during the final days of Joe Lewis and I remember how we sat around the radio listening to every blow and how the 'Hood exploded when the "Brown Bomber" won. People flew outta their houses and a street party began because we had won 'cause Joe had won. You had to be around then to understand how little we had to be proud of because the racism, hatred and self hatred was so damn thick. The 50's was one hell of a time, many Negroes were left behind because they couldn't make the transition from Negro to Black, others were left back when they couldn't accept Black Power, still others are spinning in the past as we've moved to reclaim our Afrikan identity. In other words our community is covered with people litter haunting our tomorrows. We were proud of Jack 'n Joe, while Sonny Liston was too much like the brute that reminded us of yesterday's Black overseers and "slave prize fights." No! Not because he was dark skin, but because he was a Mafia flunky who use to bust up Blacks as a collector of extorted dough for white loan sharks and protection scams on Black folk. Later they would murder him and discard him. Before him came Floyd Patterson who was anintroverted quiet speaking soft punk who allowed a Swedish white boy by the name of Igamar Johannsen to thoroughly kick his ass and go-rilla the heavyweight crown from off his head. Never mind he later almost beat Johannsen to death taking the crown back, unlike Joe Lewis he was not forgiven for the lost. Floyd used to travel through the hood with a disguise in shame after the infamous defeat.
Liston destroyed Patterson with awesome power that left him splattered all over the ring like a piece of indistinguishable modern art "splattt" on a white canvass. Like his reactionary twin, stupid traitor George Foreman, it was thought he could never be beat. George who was without question the most hated champion the community ever seen, mainly because he waved that silly little Amerikkkan flag during the '68 Olympics after Tommy Smith and John Carlos raised their Black gloved fists in front of the world. Their courageous act, of course, politically signaled that the shit was on! While his reminded us that Uncle Toms were gonna protect master with their sorry lives. By the way, many had to be snuffed for defending master's domain.
However, it was Muhammad Ali who busted on the scene with a brilliant flash of talent, skill and for a while he even was politically in tuned with the progressive youth of his time. Beating Liston twice, we think, he became the embodiment of the Black youth of the time. Brass, bold, beautiful and making no apologies for being what we were. His battle with the government over being drafted into their military during the Vietnam War is legend. Since I was around let me describe it all to ya. Most of the Negroes still in shock that the apathy of the 50's was over took the position that "that boy is crazy, he ought to go into the military like Joe Louis and work for Special Forces. All he would have to do is some boxing exhibitions and poster boy work Like Joe Louis did and come out and go make his money" they said with twisted reason.
Never mind that individualism was being suppressed and we as a group, a tribe, a village was moving for the collective. Never mind, Amerikkkan imperialism was slaughtering innocent people to keep freedom hostage. And never mind that any work with the Amerikkkan war machine was an endorsement to our youth of the 'Hood, who were dying in record numbers anyway. The Vietnamese were not our enemy, our enemy was the white Supremist military machinery, that was killing throughout Asia and Afrika.
Then, of course, there were the "I went and served my country why can't Cassius Clay or Ali or whatever his name is." This sad group couldn't even understand the Civil Rights Movement much less the Black Power thrust. They advocated that he serve, sit down and shut up. If, in fact, he do what he was told, he would get paid. Sound familiar? Lastly, there was our group of revolutionaries of all ages and the youth who were proud of his stance as it exposed the Vietnam hustle Amerikkka was pulling on the whole society. Needless to say, Ali's strength and resolve heightened the contradictions in white society and their children went buck wild in opposition to a war they actually was sleeping. Ali's stance was consistent with the movement of our people to engage the enemy at every turn. He's got to be given credit, he paid the price and supplied the needed upliftment for us to continue the fight.
This made him the most hated Black man in this country, by whites, because he was a symbol of Black rage and defiance. For years he was kept from legally fighting as the system conspired to starve and humiliate him. In the eyes of the world he got bigger and bigger until he had the most recognizable face in the world. It would take years before they wore him down to the reactionary pitiful Amerikkkan he is today. Ya see, Ali was a contradiction, an ugly one, who privately never lived up to the front he put up. I know this hurts but we gotta grow up and look at the historical facts as we kick the crutches from under ourselves and build tomorrows courage with truth.
