I'm a Bad Man

Canonized by his lighting of 1996 Olympic cauldron and the resurgence of public attention that followed Muhammad Ali earned the endearment of the American mainstream which years before held him in contempt for his outspokenness political views and religious affiliation. Ali’s present status as an “American hero” hinders an accurate understanding of history and his meaning to African Americans and the world community. More has been written about Ali than any man in history yet little of what is in print goes beyond depicting him as a phenomenal athlete and an American pop icon.. Finally a scholar’s eye is cast on the subject of Muhammad Ali going beyond measuring him as a athlete pop icon or political figurehead to explore the cultural roots of his heroic persona. I’M A BAD MAN localizes Ali in a tradition set forth by mythic heroes of the African American oral tradition and real life folk heroes Jack Johnson and Joe Louis. Moreover the book delineates Ali’s utilization of African American verbal practices to consciously create himself as an Afrocentric folk hero.