Quote Originally Posted by OwnedByPacstraightleft
Ali was never a great person outside the ring in his prime he was more disrespectful than Mayweather was and was racist wasn't he ??
He practiced his disrespect and used it pointedly and with purpose. It didn't just flow out of a negative attitude.

Racist? I would say no. Go back to those years (which aren't all that long ago) and feel what was happening in the civil rights movement. Referring to Elijah Muhammad, Ali said, "Elijah is not teaching hate when he tells us about all the evil things the white man has done, any more than you are teaching hate when you tell about what Hitler did to the Jews. That's not hate, that's history."

Another quote: "Cassius Marcellus Clay. He was a Kentucky white man who owned my great-grandaddy and named my great-grandaddy after him. And then my grandaddy got named, and then my daddy, and now it's me. We were named after our white slavemaster."

He also said, "I'm color-blind. I love people. Black, white, rich or poor."

In context, I think he had a legitimate struggle against a white culture. He said things that made them uncomfortable in his search for a fair shake and equal standing. I don't think, though, that he qualifies as a racist.