Racism in the Vietnam War, recognised and opposed by Muhammad Ali, resembles the rhetoric of discrimination in post-9/11 policies.
Muhammad Ali recognized the ways in which US militarism relied heavily on racism to
build public support for war against "the other".
Muhammad Ali's treatment by the US government during the time, when he openly opposed the Vietnam War, has some troubling similarities with the US government's rhetoric justifying its invasion of Muslim countries like Iraq and Afghanistan.
In addition to challenging the best boxers of his time in the ring, Muhammad Ali challenged America's limiting notions of black identity more than any other athlete of his time. As the politial scientist from the University of Lousville, Dewey Clayton, said: "Muhammad Ali raised the fact early on that all African-Americans were not cut from the same cloth and we all did not have the same consciousness as such".
Muhammad Ali was not only an outstanding athlete, but also a funny, captivating and courageous personality who questioned the war on Vietnam and opposed it, leading him to face serious challenges in both his personal and professional lives.
He refused to participate in an unjust war and be responsible for shooting "some darker people for big powerful America", as he phrased it. As a result of Ali's courage and determination to stand up for the truth, he was investigated by the FBI and was subjected to discrimination and injustice.
Consequently, Muhammad Ali was convicted of draft evasion on June 20, 1967, and he was given the maximum penalty: a $10,000 fine and five years in prison. Muhammad Ali, the twenty-five-year-old boxer was stripped of his title by the World Boxing Association and banned from boxing for the period of four years as his appeal made its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
