What Muhammad Ali Taught Me

What I Learned From Muhammad Ali

I am not a boxing fan and don’t know the particulars of Muhammad Ali’s sports career, but I knew, even from a young age—I was ten in 1967—who this man was. His change to the Islam religion and identity and his refusal to go to war at first confused me then earned my admiration.

It was hypocritical for someone to refuse to fight in a war but have no compunction about fighting in a ring, my naivety argued. The idea that punching people could be a sport didn’t compute to me for some time. Completely lost on me was the fact that you don’t aim to kill people in the ring.

Critical Thinking

I suspect my first real knowledge of what the Civil Rights Movement meant came from Cassius Clay’s disillusionment with the treatment received by African Americans in the sixties and the media brouhaha over his conversion to Muhammad Ali. His outrageous political incorrectness kept him out of the category of bullied underdog to me yet people said such hurtful, unkind things. That he stuck to his guns and stayed true to his beliefs come what may impressed me and made me pay attention to the circumstances triggering his conversion.

I started listening more closely to others on the subject, such as Martin Luther King, Jr., and slowly learned to look at my culture’s teachings with a critical eye. Criticism gets a bad rap as meaning unkind, negative feedback. The art or skill of critical thinking means to make a learned evaluation of something based on your own sincere efforts to understand it from multiple sources of information and outlooks. Often concerning artistic works, critical thinking can also be used in judging the value of any teaching, law, moral code, etc.

Standing Up Against the Current

Raised on the teachings of Jesus, arguably the most well-known pacifist, I found anyone who lived by that creed very brave. I knew then—and have never changed my mind—that not giving in to fear and angry outbursts at times takes a herculean effort of will as does standing up for what you believe when the rest of the current is against you and ready to knock you down. Muhammad Ali gave examples of doing both while often keeping his unique brand of humor intact.

Throughout elementary school I don’t remember being taught more than the basic facts of slavery or dates and battles of any war. The human toll and consequences never entered the conversation, and I can’t truly say that I learned more before college, but I can say that Muhammad Ali’s refusal to be drafted was talked about, mostly in a negative context. In later years, it helped me understand and appreciate other viewpoints, the possible repercussions of believing in or even talking about unpopular ideas, and the moral value of finding your own beliefs and standing up to be counted on important issues.