The Complete Muhammad Ali and Black Tokenism with Ishmael Reed

Venerable author Ishmael Reed joined us for this rousing conversation about his new book The Complete Muhammad Ali.  But as listeners (and readers of his book) will quickly note a good deal of Reed’s approach to the subject is through a critique of the society in which conversations about Ali, race, class, etc. take place.  So our conversation covered not only the distinct approach to Ali taken by Reed but also the idea of the Black token and White acceptance or criticism of Black thought and art.  We talked some about James Baldwin, Cornel West, Ta-Nehisi Coates and Melissa Harris-Perry about the Ali canon and Henry Louis Gates, Ben Affleck and more.  Plus we ran some good music from Paris, Amori and Tef Poe.