Sherry Chandler » from “Saint Cassius” in The Oxford American
from “Saint Cassius” in The Oxford American
When Ali shouted “I’m pretty!’ in 1964 during the ringside interview after beating Sonny Liston, it was a defiant statement, and had everything to do with race in America at the time. When this proud, young black man–one who predicted, almost supernaturally, when his opponents would fall, who rallied behind his own supremacy, who belonged to the separatist Nation of Islam, a sect that perceived whites as “the devil”–howled “I’m pretty!” it wasn’t just funny, or even comically arrogant. Its undercurrent was cutting, a precursor to what he would tell The Black Scholar about his refusal to be drafted: “I was determned to be one nigger that the white man didn’t get. One nigger, that you don’t get, white man. You understand? One nigger, you ain’t going to get. One nigger you ain’t going to get.”
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