[lbo-talk] Muhammad Ali on Vietnam

[Carrol Cox]

Muhammad Ali: "Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go 10,000
miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on Brown people in Vietnam while
so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple
human rights? No I'm not going 10,000 miles from home to help murder and
burn another poor nation simply to continue the domination of white slave
masters of the darker people the world over. 
This is the day when such evils must come to an end. I have been warned that
to take such a stand would cost me millions of dollars. But I have said it
once and I will say it again. The real enemy of my people is here. I will
not disgrace my religion, my people or myself by becoming a tool to enslave
those who are fighting for their own justice, freedom and equality. If I
thought the war was going to bring freedom and equality to 22 million of my
people they wouldn't have to draft me, I'd join tomorrow. I have nothing to
lose by standing up for my beliefs. So I'll go to jail, so what? We've been
in jail for 400 years."