I looked up the words ‘David Bowie,’ ‘transcend’ and ‘race’ to find publications suggesting that the late musician transcended his whiteness. I found nothing. When Prince died, I couldn’t escape headlines that read: “Prince transcended race.”

Now, The Greatest is gone. And people are attempting to whitewash his legacy.

Really? Are you really saying that the man in the video below transcended race?

Nah.

muhammad ali transcended race — Photo: Giphy

White people shamed him for being a loud and proud black man when he was alive. They shamed him for standing against the war and refusing to fight for a country that sustained a legacy of violence against people black people. In the face of this opposition, he thrived.

Ali was black. Ali was Muslim. Ali was unashamed of his roots.

And now that he’s gone, he “transcends race?”

The only people who seem to transcend race are white people and dead people of color who were undeniably talented.

Muhammad Ali did not transcend race. Ali was Black. BLACK. B-L-A-C-K. He was blacker than black. He rejected his slave name and gave himself a new one. He spoke against the people who raped, lynched and enslaved his ancestors. Ali was loud, proud and The Greatest.

https://twitter.com/MsPackyetti/status/739128142170710016

When I die, make sure they don’t whitewash me. I want the world to know that in the face of white supremacy I loved my kinky hair and black skin. That I loved negro noses with Jackson 5 nostrils. That I embraced my ancestry. Tell them I am proud to be a descendant of slaves. That I’m proud of my ancestors for finding ways to thrive and love under a system that told them they were less than human. Tell them strength is in my bloodline. Tell them I’m from the South. That I appreciate my great grandparents for working as sharecroppers to own their own land. Tell them I loved my blackness.

When I die, tell them I was blackity-black black. Or better yet, put it on my gravestone.

Share your thoughts on the attempts to whitewash Muhammad Ali in the comments below.

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muhammad ali transcended race

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