Muhammad Ali Gives His Stance On The Vietnam War | The Dick Cavett Show

mohamad what do you do these days now it seems the I sometimes wonder what you're doing you know it's really strange I'm actually more busier now but I was boxing because at the time I was boxing I had to go and train him for like 3 months before a fight and like immediately after a fight I was signing for another one and I was like on the streets or like three weeks of them was back in training and I fought as much as 3 or 4 times a year and trained in three months each fight I was mostly encount but I'm more busier now than I was more active in the reign of an example I was in Pittsburgh yesterday and toured about three black high schools in one day encouraging the youth a lot of gang wars are going on and they're shooting each other and sniping at each other in the streets and the principals or mentioned that with the things that I have done and sacrifices I have made I'm about one of the few people that they might listen to so I went and they did listen and a couple of the gangs got together and we had a little secret meeting and they shook each other's hand and said they're gonna try to stop fighting and shoot and a lot of my taking dope and a lot of the girls are going into prostitution and we went through the schools we talked with the various groups and we had a good time and all yeah I want our college to also and my agent or Richard falter there in New York says that look like we're gonna be booked for another two years in the colleges and I'm also franchising about 500 restaurants called champ burgers we have five of them in the Miami area champ burgers hamburgers right and we negotiate norm about ten more buildings in Georgia and we're coming up here and all over the country and also Random House will be coming out soon with my life autobiography about four more months I'll stay pretty busy that's pretty good is there any any oh how do you stand now with the possibility of going to jail oh I don't know I'm just waiting any day now do you think of that do you think about that though do you ever think what you'll do well yes you think about it at nights when you're in the bed you think about you know if I went this way what could have happened if I went this way and I'll figured it all out yeah no people gained freedom until some have to die some lose the wealth some give up money and like I would say the white race when young people first got here they didn't have these cameras and televisions and jet airplanes and our conditions and Howard Johnsons and Holiday Inns and Americana and Hilton hotels they had to fight the Indians watch the daughters raped and scabbed took six months to go from here to Los Angeles now you can do it in three and a half hours but nevertheless they kept fighting and cutting down the trees and they didn't see this but they made a way for the present vice to rule and the Japanese in World War two they had these flights called suicide missions they knew they would die but they ran that plane right his life meant nothing when it came to the freedom of his daughter his son the future of his nation and I would say like the astronauts three white astronauts almost got stranded in space and their wives are waiting and the children were worried because they might they could have been out there now still in order yeah but for the progress of a white American space eight astronauts died on the ground and three almost not got back but whenever people want to really make progress some have to sacrifice a lot and I like to say white America right now spending thirty million dollars a day in Asia black and white bars are dying unjustly for nothing just to free somebody else so why should I worry about going to little old jail to free my poor people who's been catching hell here and it's kind of hard it's kind of hard to put asking straight answer to that's kind of hard to put a black man or any black person in this country in jail because if you ask the average one we're already in jail you know we've been in jail for hundred years something changed so many times in that long sentence that I read I'm going to talk for a second now that I really don't know how that connects with Howard Johnson's and everything but it's a terrific Lee long reign you did do you feel bitter toward the entire white race do you think there's something about whiteness that is whatever white people do as far as evil or as far as the mistreatment it's just the nature of the white race to be this way if we check history I think in nature yes it's just human nature to kill wait a minute you know watch television if there's not a movie of white people shooting white people in shootouts and cowboy pictures there shoot Mendez if not shoot endless the shooting egg rolls if they're not doing that the shooting Rangers the elephant's or she killing something just got to shoot this is the system is built on war now let me ask you this do you think if it had happened the other way around for some reason in in what's the word evolution if the genes and the pigments had happened to work some other way and if the nation of Africa or the continent of Africa had developed the kind of civilization that ours has and is it possible that what I'm trying to say is is there something intrinsically I know this is that this is part of the of the Muslim point I assume the Black Muslim point that there's something intrinsically tomboyish aggressive about white nature that there isn't no religious point what I'm telling you is in history books in your own books about this I have a book called 100 you're sure I know oh there's I'm not bringing up religion or nothing this is just the fact that the world knows you know but I would say that uh just the nature from what I see of darker people is peace I'll say like the Japanese seemed to be a peaceful people until somebody else came over dictating and trying to rule the Hawaiians or maybe on the beach done a little dance and didn't was building his what a teepee or whatever you call it to African was somewhere doing his little dance these people have never tried to go to other planets or slay enslave other people or take over countries actually that isn't true I don't want to get in an argument with you but then Tahiti for example is always used as an example of the paradise that the white man came and destroyed but if you look into the history of it when I'm an expert because I just read a book about if Captain Cook but that supposedly peaceful paradise where people did nothing but pluck bread fruit off the trees and make love and had no disease until the white man got there actually had a number of unpleasant aspects to it like the fact that they strangled infants at birth to keep the population down that there were live human sacrifices so I really I know that there have been outrageous and justices against the black people in this country but it doesn't really get us very far to talk about something as if the white man were some sort of intrinsic devil masters you all right what you say it was the truth the thing that you all have done does has worse than the devil you told us about underground how would you like it if I were to lead into a commercial in our local stations will return [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: The Dick Cavett Show

Views: 1,162,792

Rating: 4.8847704 out of 5

Keywords: The Dick Cavett Show, Talk Show, Musician, Celebrities, Dick Cavett, United States, Chat Show, Interview, Muhammad Ali, muhammad ali interview, muhammad ali dick cavett, muhammad ali 1970, muhammad ali vietnam war, muhammad ali titles stripped, muhammad ali war, muhammad ali fights, muhammad ali speech, muhammad ali dick cavett interview, muhammad ali jail

Id: hxuqSzE2mB0

Length: 7min 53sec (473 seconds)

Published: Fri May 08 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/falconx50]

All of you realize that these two became friends, right? They talked about serious stuff, and also joked with each other. I know it's easy and fun to project your own feelings and thoughts on others, but come on. Taking shit out of context is disingenuous.

[u/[deleted]]

I don’t know if I could interrupt Muhammad Ali the way Dick Cavett does.

[u/buddhist-truth]

Highly encourage people to watch PBS Vietnam war (2017) documentary series.

Bonus : Madame Nhu's response to Burning Monks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_PWM9gWR5E

[u/imnotroll2]

At the time Ali was part of the Nation of Islam, so his believes were racists at the time. But his viewpoint later changed to be more tolerant.

The same with MalcomX.

[u/dernala123]

Muhammad Ali was one of the greatest athletes of his time and he is right that white people have a very dark history but it seems like people have used that to brainwash him to think all white people are evil. You can clearly hear the hatred that has been instilled in him.

Does he really think Africa had never seen any kind of war where white people were involved in? As a Muslim no less, he should know better than saying something that wrong.

[u/[deleted]]

neither of them covered themselves in glory there did they?

[u/JFHermes]

Dick Cavett had some great segments and a lot of them have been shared here on reddit. But the dude was a bit of an asshole. And I don't mean the general defensiveness about being white that's shown in this clip. You can just tell he would have been a nightmare if you got on his badside.

[u/Iktaiwu]

pitty Dick Cavett's interviewing skills didnt rise to the occasion.

[u/SafePay8]

Looking up what most famous people said back in those days is probably never going to be good. Very few got through that period without having some sort of stain in their past.