Why was Muhammad Ali given a Roman name (Cassius Marcellus) at birth? Were his parents huge classicists or something? Evidently the given name of Ali's father was also Cassius Marcellus Clay, but I can't find much more about it than that.
Why was Muhammad Ali given a Roman name (Cassius Marcellus) at birth? Were his parents huge classicists or something...
Owen Cox
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Landon Price
They probably just liked the name m8 what more thought do you really expect regular people to put into it?
Nolan Mitchell
In the south some slave owners would ironically name their enslaved victims roman names like Cesar or Nero or what ever. Kind of ducked up but like black Americans being stripped on their language and traditional names they adapted and sometimes continued the practice.
Logan Peterson
Idk dude, it just seems really unusual. In America, interest in the classical world has historically been the realm of white aristocracy & the upper class, but Ali was the son of a black sign painter from Louisville.
Elijah Bailey
Oh wow, I had never heard about that. Makes a lot of sense though. Thanks.
Chase Thomas
Maybe they did not want him to become a ghetto ass bitch nigger?
Joshua Jackson
HE WUZ KANGZ
Jaxon Kelly
NOS REGES ET STERCORE NIGGER
Anthony Watson
Yeah, basically it was similar to naming your dogs classical names, it was to show off your education. There was an added element of irony though with slaves, literal human property destined to a life of servitude given the name of a great leader or mythic hero.
Benjamin Gray
>ironically
Did they ironically name their kids Cletus too?
Daniel Phillips
Cassius Marcellus Clay was an Anglo American abolitionist.
Jacob Kelly
Ali's birth name doesn't matter. What does matter is he forsook it for a muslim name, and joined the cancerous community of black muslims.
Shows just how much he valued America(not much at all).
Justin Robinson
Sure, he lined in with that fuck Farrakhan and did the usual totally not-racist-but-actually-is-racist black nationalism. He calmed down latter in life, though. Islam to him just meant peace. That's all he wished it meant for everyone.
Anthony Sanders
this, but there was also a meme amongst the African American population in the mid-20th century to give their children 'respectable' names. That's why there are a lot of blacks called things like Winston, Reginald and variations of French names.
Grayson Peterson
I'm willing to bet you were born after 1998
Jose Edwards
respectability politics is one hell of a drug lol.
Chase Johnson
>race relations have always been as good as it is today
>there wasn't real racism back in the day
Brody Powell
>Are good today.
Nah.
Jayden Ramirez
I'm willing to bet one or more of your girlfriends cheated on you
Isaac Kelly
I'm willing to bet you've never had one.
Michael King
Grayson Mitchell
>Frederick
>Abraham
>Benjamin
>Caesar
>Theodore