I ain’t draft dodging. I ain’t burning no flag, and I ain’t runnin’ to Canada. I’m stayin’ right here. You want to send me to jail? Fine, you go right ahead. I’ve been in jail for 400 years. I could be there for four or five more, but I ain’t goin’ no 10,000 miles to help murder and kill other poor people. If I want to die, I’ll die right here, right now, fightin’ you, if I want to die. You my enemy, not no Chinese, no Vietcong, no Japanese. You my opposer – when I want freedom. You my opposer – when I want justice. You my opposer – when I want equality. Want me to go somewhere and fight for you? You won’t even stand up for me right here in America, for my rights and my religious beliefs. You won’t even stand up for my right here at home. You don’t stand up for those young black brothers who are killing themselves out here in the deprived streets. But that isn’t a problem to you because it hasn’t reached wall street where all your money at. I or any other clever black man isn’t putting on a khaki uniform and dropping bombs and spraying bullets onto other poor coloured people. Those who have never talked to me. Why? When these so called Negros are getting treated like dogs here in Louisville. Why should I go and fight them when I can’t sit down and eat in a restaurant normally like everyone else. Who’s the real enemy my brothers? Who? Those Vietcong or the establishment of the United states, I aint pointed no fingers at no one.
Those 50 stars on the flag mean the world to me but if those 50 stars want me to go and take an innocent life , then those 50 stars are useless. Those 50 stars are outweighed by the importance of the black skin that’s stretch all over my body. Before the blue white and red or the stars comes the black.
Now I know for sure that ur going to ban me and confiscate my licence. But go ahead. You take everything away from me but I aint helping the racial domination of the white slave masters over the dark people of the world. Not at any cost.
My hands can’t hit what my eyes can’t see and I’ve seen no Vietcong with my own two eyes.
The greatest, ur own. Muhammad ali.
