Quote Originally Posted by match View Post
You just reinterated what I just stated. --"Just because Frazier didn't speak out it doesn't mean he didn't support what Ali stood for." This is what I just said. I said the MISTAKE Ali made was that he mistook his silence for lack of empathy, as did many people in the country. Look at it this way, Max Schmelling recieved thousands of letters of hate mail from Americans because they THOUGHT he was a Nazi. He wasn't, but if you were German and were seen walking side by side with Hitler, it was reasonable to assume you were a Nazi. It was wrong, but it was understandable why people would assume that. Likewise, if you were powerful and Black and did not speak out during the Civil Rights movement, it was understandable that people would mistake you for an Uncle Tom. It was wrong, but it was simply understandable. And you need to understand what many in this thread have already brought up, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods do not live under Jim Crow laws. There is absolutely no political subject today that affects Black people as the Civil Rights movement did, and that's something you know Lyle.
OK, so I misinterpreted what you were saying...my bad. Ali used Frazier as propaganda when all Joe wanted to focus on is just fighting whoever was infront of him and then have his personal life at home where it was supposed to be.

As for Jordan and Woods, there was a feeling that those guys had to carry on what guys like Jim Brown did and be outspoken and take the Civil Rights movement to the next level. (That's the feeling I got anyway)....when Obama was running for President and everyone was hounding Tiger Woods for ANY opinion on it and he shied away from commenting on it, he caught hell for it. He did speak up after Barrack won but before then sports "journalists" like the fat slob Jason Whitlock were pressing Tiger to support Obama.

Sorry for the mix up...I just get a little fed up with people who treat Ali as if he did no wrong, IMO his rivalry with Frazier couldn't have been carried out in a more wrong manner.