Laying the Foundation for Change: Muhammad Ali & the Civil Rights Movement
Continuing the Conversation
A year after Ali's return to boxing, he participated in a compelling interview on BBC with Michael Parkinson. In this interview, Muhammad reflected on the racially fueled comments he heard from students. In addition, Muhammad further clarified his position on racial injustice globally and his religious convictions as a member of the Nation of Islam. Most notably from this interview are the questions he posed to the listening audience, which directly calls into question the nefarious way that white supremacy ideology appears in cultural conversations.
I asked my Mama, I said, “Mama, how come everything is white?”. I said, “Why is Jesus white with blonde hair and blue eyes? Why is the Lord's Supper all white men? Angels are white, Pope, Mary, and even the angels.” I said, “Mother, when we die, do we go to heaven?” She said, “Naturally we go to heaven.”
I said, “What happened to all the Black angels when they took the pictures?” And the angel food cake was the white cake, and the devil food cake was the chocolate cake. I always wondered...and the president lived in the White House. And Mary had a little lamb, his feet as white as snow, and Snow White, and everything was white. Santa Claus was white. And everything bad was black. The little ugly duckling was a black duck. And the black cat was bad luck. And if I threaten you, I'm going to blackmail you. I said, 'Mama, why don't they call it whitemail? They lie too!”. I was always curious, and this is when I knew something was wrong.
