No Vietnamese Ever Called Me A Nigger

Mohammed Ali is thought to have said the title of this post. Unfortunately as great as this soundbite is, it was likely never said publicly, on record*. However it is possible he may have said it privately. It was well known to the Boomers at the time but forgotten to Generation X and the Echo that Cassius Clay refused millitary service. He risked his career and everything he had in order to stand up for what he believed in. He knew the difference between two men who agree to hit each other with padded mittens and going to the other side of the world to kill strangers. What Ali probably said was this:

Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000 miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights? No I’m not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave masters of the darker people the world over. This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. But I have said it once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is here. I will not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality. If I thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my people they wouldn’t have to draft me, I’d join tomorrow. I have nothing to lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I’ll go to jail, so what? We’ve been in jail for 400 years.

Which he said in Redemption Song: Muhammad Ali and the Spirit of the Sixties (1999) by Mike Marqusee

In light of all the bloodshed going on in Lebanon this past weekend and all the mutual defense pacts we and other nations hold with each other, here is a link that may come in handy in the very near future.

As for me, I'm medically unfit for combat. Bad eyes, ankles and teeth. I'm severly anemic and to top it all off... the amphetamines or "go pills" they give to combat troops put me to sleep. So yeah, maybe I'm a pussy. I'd rather be home with my family then out pillaging people I know aren't doing me any harm.


* Ralph Keyes' Nice Guys Finish Seventh: False Phrases, Spurious Sayings, and Familiar Misquotations