Sonoma State University Professor Michael Ezra discusses Muhammad Ali as a cultural icon and historical figure this Sunday, June 14 at 8:15 a.m. on KRON TV Channel 4.
Ezra will be the guest of Weekend News host Henry Tenenbaum about his recently published book Muhammad Ali: The Making of an Icon - a look at the commercial intrigue that surrounded Muhammad Ali in and out of the ring.
Ezra, chair of the American Multicultural Studies Department, has put together a scholarly book looking at the life of Ali through the lens of those who were profiting from him at each stage of his career.
Muhammad Ali (born Cassius Clay) has always engendered an emotional reaction from the public, says Ezra. From his appearance as an Olympic champion to his iconic status as a national hero, his carefully constructed image and controversial persona have always been intensely scrutinized.
In his book, Ezra considers the boxer who calls himself "The Greatest" from a new perspective. He writes about Ali's pre-championship bouts, the management of his career and his current legacy, exploring the promotional aspects of Ali and how they were wrapped up in political, economic, and cultural "ownership."
He explores these processes:
"People have made sense of Muhammad Ali over the years by assessing him as either a good person or a bad person. The public's sense of Ali's moral authority has always been a function of its perception of who has profited off him. For example, Ali's relationships to the Vietnam War and the Nation of Islam, as barometers of his public moral status, were important not primarily because of their political and racial content, but because they represented who had economic ownership of him. What brought Ali infamy during the 1960s was not necessarily that he was a politically oppositional force, but that he threatened to generate wealth for the wrong people.
"Accurately assessing Ali's past and present impact requires that we take a close look at the economic ramifications of his cultural meaning. It is easy to attribute Ali's iconic and beloved status today to his being right about the Vietnam War, or his being a fantastic fighter, or his renunciation of the Nation of Islam. Certainly those things are contributing factors in his becoming sacrosanct. But to truly understand Ali, one must never lose sight of the ways that people have capitalized by spinning such narratives into allegories."
Professor Michael Ezra can be reached at (707) 664-3293.
