RadioOnFire.com - Laila Ali took to Facebook on Wednesday [October 5], to set the record straight on where she stands in regards to the issue of protest during the current state of race relations and injustice in the nation. Through a video shot in the intimacy of her home, Ali covered a range of notions born out of a recent interview she conducted with the Black Voices section of the Huffington Post. The former boxing champ used her air-time to reject accusations that she is a part of any anti-Black Lives Matter movement, and to take ownership over a perspective interpreted by many, to be contrary to the one history knows her father to have taken in relation to the patriotism during his protests against racism and the Vietnam War.
"I was asked a host of questions during the interview. One of them was related to a specific athlete, that's Black. And I was asked about the fact that he has to speak out for himself, Black people, without alienating his fans," She said, avoiding mention of who many would suspect to be Colin Kaepernick. "I said, you know what, on my Facebook page, for example, I don't post 'pro-Black' content because I don't want people to feel alienated." Prior to addressing assumptions made of her 29-minute meeting with the publication, she'd pose that the Huffington Post edited their recording of the interview down to 6 minutes, and gave it a provocative headline.
According to Ali, she agreed to the Black Voices chat in order to discuss an initiative she's got going for children in under-represented communities, but it was sensationalized to highlight her comments in relation to Black Lives Matter. As a result, Ali says she received numerous calls questioning her integrity and was bashed as a "coon," a "sell out," and disgrace to her father's name. "I wasn't saying that you don't say anything, that you don't take a stand. I'm saying that you have to be responsible in the choice of words. How you go about doing things," she defended.
"The last thing I think really upset people was when I said that to me, Black lives matter, White lives matter, Asian lives matter, all lives matter. That's what my focus is. I didn't mean that I'm a part of any movement. I just simply meant that I care about all people," Ali said, after reasserting that she takes her broad base of fans and endorsements into account when taking a stand. Before claiming that nothing could hold her back from making a statement, and highlighting that some weeks ago, she in fact had shared a BLM related video with her FB audience, Ali stated that, "when you have sponsors, when you have to worry about being politically correct, when you have to worry about stepping on people's toes, all while trying to uplift your people, you have to find a balance. It's not an easy thing. That's just real talk."
The 38-year-old Women's Boxing Hall of Famer went on with an attempt at stifling any contrasts drawn between the great Muhammad Ali's willingness to draw a line in the sand between himself and his identified oppressor, by sharing that there was a period in time during his later years, in which he traveled the world and began to recognize dynamics of oppression that would change his view. She explained that the shift in his point of view had to due with the elder Ali seeing "the same injustices. Racism, people being killed and beat down because of the color of their skin, because of their religion, because of their culture. Then he saw, 'wow' This isn't just a Black thing. This is happening all over the world. That's when he came back here and he started preaching about love, tolerance, compassion, oneness for all people."
Source: youtube.com
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