The full quote refers to all whites. I agree it is inappropriate by today's standards, but a black man saying whites are the devil in 1969? I mean...
Simply assuming that he was treated badly and therefore justified in his blanket discrimination towards others is academically lazy and ethically unacceptable.
This rebuttal only has merit if you're being pedantically literal.
Surely, you're aware of the prevailing racial conditions in the U.S. and Louisville in particular during Ali's upbringing and beyond. He was, by definition, treated badly by an entire system that was not set up by black people, yet overtly oppressed black people.
Surely, you're aware of how the conditions of the time would have impacted Ali himself, his family, and those in his community. Surely, you can see how members of such a community might feel some anger and resentment.
What's lazy here is your pedantic use of demagoguery to make enlightened-sounding, but vapid statements that berate others for some supposed discrimination that exists only in a willfully myopic bubble of your own creation.
I'm not assuming anything; has life has been documented time and time again. We information from him personally, those who knew him, and we know exactly what Louisville Kentucky was like during his lifetime. Are you saying that unless I was there personally I know "absolutely nothing" about his life? Get real and get over yourself.
Ali was my favorite sports figure as a child and remains so. I have consumed everything I can find about the guy. I'm willing to bet I know more than you on the matter, but if I don't, why don't you share some of your insights with us as well as the rest of the world?
>academically lazy and ethically unacceptable
Yeesh. I'm not sure what 'academic and ethical' standards you believe people on a forum should be held to, but again; get over yourself. I'm sure you think you're being extremely clever and deep with your comments here, but in reality you're adding absolutely nothing to the conversation with your overly pedantic comments which show nothing but your ignorance of history.
I also find it pretty hilarious that you seem to have created a throwaway account purely to comment in this thread.
Ali: Turning my back on Malcolm was one of the mistakes that I regret most in my life. I wish I’d been able to tell Malcolm I was sorry, that he was right about so many things. But he was killed before I got the chance. He was a visionary ahead of us all.
…I might never have become a Muslim if it hadn’t been for Malcolm. If I could go back and do it over again, I would never have turned my back on him.
"People saying this is racist are misunderstanding that the problem with racism is not just some words, it's the power balance dynamic that backs them. A black man saying white people are the devil, has no power to actually do much damage, even in 2016. A white man saying that black man is the devil, has during our history been able to: imprison the person on trumped up charges, have their family bought and sold, beaten often to death, hung them, tar and feather, run them out of town, and refuse them housing. To pretend that there is an equality between two statements from people of different skin colors in current and past american society is to be willfully blind to the difference between them."