Muhammad Ali Jr claims his dad would have hated 'racist' BLM protests, says he believed 'all lives matter'
Muhammad Ali's son said that his father would have thoroughly hated the racist Black Lives Matter protests. He claimed that the movement is "pitting black people against everyone else" and has insisted that George Floyd's killer had been "doing his job." On the fourth death anniversary of the boxing legend, Ali's son, Muhammad Ali Jr, said his father was a firm believer in "all lives matter."
While speaking to the NY Post, Ali Jr shared, "My father would have said, 'They ain't nothing but devils'. My father said, 'all lives matter.' I don't think he'd agree." The 47-year-old also said that his father would have called the Black Lives Matter protests "racist." He also said that his father would have definitely been a Donald Trump supporter had he been alive today. The claims made by Ali Jr are shocking especially since Ali was a civil rights campaigner who had called for the end of racism, Daily Mail reports. Ali had marched with the Black Panther Party and had also refused to sign up to the Vietnam war. Ali's only biological son, who had been estranged from the boxer when he passed away, shared that the BLM movement is just "pitting black people against everyone else."
He told the Post, "I think it's racist. It's not just black lives matter, white lives matter, Chinese lives matter, all lives matter, everybody's life matters. God loves everyone - he never singled anyone out. Killing is wrong no matter who it is." Ali Jr also believes that it is a "racial statement." He shared, "It's pitting black people against everyone else. It starts racial things to happen; I hate that."
He also said his father would have condemned the way some of the protests have turned violent. He shared, "Don't bust up s**t, don't trash the place. You can peacefully protest." The nation had erupted in tension and protests over the death of 46-year-old George Floyd who died after a now-former Minneapolis cop, Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for almost 9 sickening minutes. Floyd had repeatedly said that he was unable to breathe but Chauvin did not remove his knee from his neck in a viral video that sparked outrage across the country. "The officer was wrong with killing that person, but people don't realize there was more footage than what they showed," Ali Jr said to The Post.
"The guy resisted arrest, the officer was doing his job, but he used the wrong tactic," Ali Jr said. He believes that most cops are not "crooked." Ali Jr added, "Police don't wake up and think, 'I'm going to kill a n**r today or kill a white man'. "They're just trying to make it back home to their family in one piece. Not all the police are bad, there's just a few. There's a handful of police that are crooked, they should be locked up," Ali Jr continued. He also shared that he had never had any negative encounter with a cop because of his race. He said, "I never had a bad scene with a cop. They've always been nice and protect me. I don't have a problem with them."