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The Wit Offensive of Muhammad Ali

‘Jokes? There are no jokes—the truth is the funniest joke of all.’ -Mohammed Ali.

By Jason JPublished 6 years ago 6 min read
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The typical white alpha male can strut, peacock, and demonstrate his sense of superiority over lesser men with ease. The black alpha male—even in today’s society—cannot. The legacy of racism, of racial inequality and stereotypes, still plays a significant part in how confident black males are perceived. And so what is readily seen as an authentic sense of selfhood emanating from a white alpha male will only too often be interpreted as aggression and threat when displayed by a black male. As a result, beyond the world of on-screen characters played by the likes of Will Smith and Idris Elba, the black alpha male relies on different qualities to communicate his superior status, one of which is wit.

The wit offensive allows the black alpha male to function and flourish within the racially antagonistic minefield called everyday life. As an internal device it affords the black alpha a psychological disconnect, a kind of mental detachment from the masses. It puts a healthy intellectual and emotional distance between two conflicting existential points of view—his truth and what everyone else sees as truth. Externally all alphas need to display an independent state of mind, but for the black alpha, faced with a perpetual onslaught of cultural bias, wit enables him to maintain his autonomy by framing what is presented to him within an almost absurdist context. His use of wit allows him to convey to others that while he is capable of functioning within the mainstream, he refuses to be defined by its values. While he accepts that he must operate with in it, he is determined not to be a product (read ‘unwitting victim’) of it.

It’s no surprise then that one of the greatest exponents of this black alpha trait was the undisputed and self proclaimed ‘Greatest’ himself—Mohammed Ali. And it’s no coincidence that Ali was a sportman—punching holes through mainstream society’s matrix is for the black alpha male something of a game, an occupational hazard made fun, a subtle, but nonetheless gladiatorial, sport.

* * *

Mohammed Ali came to the public fore during a truly incendiary period in American history, one which was played out on a global stage yet, like all alphas Ali dominated any space he entered, confidently commanded the respect of all men around him with no apology. He presented himself as better than anyone else and rejected received logic and challenged the consensual view again again, using the great black alpha tool as his most powerful weapon.

Ali changed his name and converted to Islam in 1964. He refused to enlist into the US army and fight against the Viet Cong in 1967. This was followed by the loss of his boxing licenses along with his World Championship Title and the threat of imprisonment. This period of his life is well documented, as too are his epic career comebacks— the Rumble In The Jungle, the Thrilla In Manilla and his diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease. Throughout all this it’s his inner game, his inherent ability to distinguish the difference between his truth and what everyone else was thinking and to make sense that distinction through humour which allowed him not only to demonstrate his alpha male superiority but also to eventually become a universally popular and hugely admired figure.

Picture this. It’s 1964. There he is, aged 22, talking about his opponent the legendary Sonny Liston in his first ever bid for the Heavyweight Championship of the World. 'Sonny Liston is nothing. The man can't talk. The man can't fight. The man needs talking lessons. The man needs boxing lessons. And since he's gonna fight me, he needs falling lessons.’ Known as Cassius Clay at the time, the young contender was more than aware that most battles are won and lost in the mind. This razor-sharp wit was not only notable for its vitriol, it was also remarkable for the fact that until then boxers were ‘handled’ and tended to speak through their managers and never for themselves. But there he was talking, boasting, and bragging about his own ability as a boxer: ‘I'm so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark.' And—'I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale, only last week I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick. I'm so mean I make medicine sick!' His play with words disarmed the listener and compelled them to think within a framework of his making, one predicated on his masculine superiority.

Picture this. It’s 1971. Ali is talking to British chat show host Michael Parkinson about how racism permeated everything in his life growing up—‘I said, “Mama, why is everything white?”—I always wondered, you know… “The President lived in the White House and Mary had a little lamb with feet as white as snow and Snow White was white...and Santa Clause was white...And everything bad was black—the little Ugly Ducking was a black duck, and the black cat was the bad luck and if I threaten you I’m going to blackmail you,” I said, “Mama why don’t they call it white mail, they lie too!?” I was always curious...And this is when I knew something was wrong.’

His engaging humour often concealed a serious message. On one level his humour made his ideas more palatable and memorable to the listener. But it also allowed his message to become less possible to argue against—and perhaps, most importantly for a black male, his wit provided him with an impenetrable buffer between himself and the often controversial content of his message.

There was more. His wit allowed him not only to connect on a humanistic level with people beyond colour and geography it also seemed as if it was a kind of act, a knowingly absurd performance which, no matter how engaged the listener found themselves, they could never work out how serious he was...or wasn’t.

What certain was that he’s wit, his sense of playfulness was self satisfying, self fulfilling. We’re privy to his world and on his terms—we’re operating within his paradigm and not the other way round.

One of Ali’s most impactful ideas was initially taken as an absurd joke, an act of self ridicule even. The idea that he was better looking than his boxing opponents. Statements repeated at almost every opportunity like ‘I’m so pretty!’ eventually invoked a form of state transference and become unarguable. From very early on his career he would say at press conferences—‘Look at me, I’m so pretty!’—indicating that he had no cuts or scars on his face, unlike most other men in his profession. And that he’d used his skill as a boxer to stay that way. ‘There’s not a man alive who can whup me! I’m too fast! I’m too smart! I’m too pretty! I should be a postage stamp! That’s the only way I’ll ever get licked!’ Initially it was received with laugher, a kind of incredulity—a boxer assuming himself good-looking caressing his face and smiling at the cameras, how absurd. However eventually, something within its resonation cause a shift, especially among black listeners. Circumventing the mainstream understanding of Ali’s humour and apparent arrogance, black audiences the world over saw this statement less as a joke and more as a statement of racial affirmation, an act of self-validation. Coded through wit, it was received as a proclamation of total self acceptance, and in essence parallel to the ‘Black Is Beautiful’ movement of the time. Like a true black alpha leader, Ali used his wit as a tool for leadership, conveying not only his personal power but also instilling a sense of power in others.

Jason J

@garmsville

fighting
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About the Creator

Jason J

I love writing about people and clothes

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