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Help[Opinions] Re: Calvin or Cassius?
in reply to a message by RoxStar
Yes, but he disliked the name because he considered it his slave name and not because of anything inherent in the name itself.
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which is kind of a shame ...
Because:
1. Ali was named after his own father, Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr.
2. Presumably, Clay Sr. was named after a famous abolitionist and ambassador to Russia in the 1860's named Cassius Marcellus Clay.
I'm not sure why Ali thought his name was a slave name; his father was born in 1912, and presumably his parents had not been slaves themselves, and had named him after the abolitionist.
I just looked up the name on Wikipedia, I didn't know there was a famous namesake behind Ali.
Because:
1. Ali was named after his own father, Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr.
2. Presumably, Clay Sr. was named after a famous abolitionist and ambassador to Russia in the 1860's named Cassius Marcellus Clay.
I'm not sure why Ali thought his name was a slave name; his father was born in 1912, and presumably his parents had not been slaves themselves, and had named him after the abolitionist.
I just looked up the name on Wikipedia, I didn't know there was a famous namesake behind Ali.
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I always knew about the abolitionist and, before the internet made finding things out so easy, I wondered if it was a coincidence that Ali had the same first and last name before he changed it.
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Maybe he meant "slave" in a different sense.
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Ali's brother had it worse ...
His brother's name at birth was Rudolph Valentino Clay. If I was in that position, I'd find it more annoying to be named after a white movie idol, already long dead when I was born, whose main schtick was pretending to be a sheikh.
His brother's name at birth was Rudolph Valentino Clay. If I was in that position, I'd find it more annoying to be named after a white movie idol, already long dead when I was born, whose main schtick was pretending to be a sheikh.
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It has to do with surnames.
When slaves were emancipated many of them took the surnames of their former owners. Their surnames didn't "belong" to them the way that white people's surnames belonged to them. Malcolm X did away with his last name for the same reason.
When slaves were emancipated many of them took the surnames of their former owners. Their surnames didn't "belong" to them the way that white people's surnames belonged to them. Malcolm X did away with his last name for the same reason.
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