Zaheer Ali Shares Historical Expertise in Netflix’s “Blood Brothers: Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali"

Zaheer Ali, executive director of The Hutchins Center for Race and Social Justice, is among the prestigious list of scholars interviewed in a new documentary, “Blood Brothers: Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali,” which premieres September 9 on Netflix.

“Blood Brothers” tells the extraordinary and ultimately tragic story of the relationship between two of the most iconic figures of the 20th century: Muhammad Ali, the greatest boxer of all time, and Malcolm X, the Nation of Islam’s — and Black America’s — most incendiary and charismatic leader.

Ali said his involvement came about due to his work as manager of the Columbia University Malcolm X Project, under the direction of the late Manning Marable.

“My voice is present to [place the relationship] into historical context — particularly in relation to the history of the Nation of Islam — as a context for understanding how Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X viewed themselves, their relationship to the organization, and to each other. I’m trying to help people understand a relationship that needs some unpacking,” Ali explained.

Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X, Ali notes, were very close, but that closeness was tempered by their involvement in the Nation of Islam, and by differing views on how to achieve liberation in terms of strategy — not in terms of objective, but in terms of tactics. “[It was] also mediated by others who anticipated a potential alliance of the two men as being very potent. Other entities, including the FBI, were closely watching the movements of both, independently and in relationship to each other,” Ali said.

The documentary, which juxtaposes current and archival images, “helps convey the immediacy and continued relevance of themes that [Ali and X] were addressing in the 1960s that continue to echo with us today,” Ali said.

Ali feels it is important for people to remember that Muhammad Ali was more than a boxer. “He lived so long and went through so many evolutionary changes,” Ali said. For contemporary audiences, their best memory of Muhammad Ali may be archival footage of him boxing or the iconic moment of him lighting the 1996 Olympic torch. What gets lost in that, Ali said, is Muhammad Ali’s social justice work.

“Muhammad Ali and his story tell us that we're all multi-dimensional people. We're all living in the world. We're all experiencing the world. We're all being impacted by that world. And we're all compelled to respond, to speak out. His story reminds us of a shared responsibility, an obligation that we have to speak out against injustice, from wherever we are and wherever we see it.”

Comparing and contrasting the roles played by Muhammad Ali and Malcolm X suggests that there have “always been multi-faceted ways that people have addressed the social issues of their time, even if it didn’t fall into line with what we thought their primary profession might have been,” Ali said. “I think it's really important for this generation to see that, no matter what it is you see as your primary pursuit, that primary pursuit is not immune or isolated from the world that we live in. We’re all compelled to speak out and to act in ways that make the world better.”

Photo credit: Carlos Khalil Guzman

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