Nice. Wish they would have done one for Prince too.
You're probably going to disagree, but I don't think Prince was as influential as Muhammad Ali. Not everyone gets to be on Apple's homepage just because they die and were popular. People who changed the world do, Prince was not one of those. He was great, but not really an inspiration to most people like Ali and others that were on Think Different posters.
I point it out only because I believe most people see only one side and never look for another
Unless you are evenhanded and do this both to people that you admire and support and to people that you dislike then you are pretty much what your accusers say you are. I agree that a lot of the people who are sweeping Ali's failures under the rug are quick to point out the flaws of public figures that they disagree with. I am merely stating that you are no better than those that you accuse.
I'm pretty even handed. Thanks for accusing. Is anyone disparaging me even old enough to actually remember his fights? Back on point though.... Apple is meandering and lost as a company and a car is certainly not the answer.
The same people who think any complex issue can be boiled down with simple anecdotes and catchphrases are predictably demanding a more nuanced look at Ali's life, lest the whole "liberal media" be spinning their moral decay all over this great (white) country.
I'm all for a hardened look at someone's legacy. But I've been on the internet for over half my life and have seen the destructive discourse that has amplified over the past decade, and refuse to believe anyone who insists their critical opinions that conveniently show up when a famous minority dies are based purely on intellectual motives.
Fuck off.
Really? Fuck off? That's it? Not a lot of room for other views on this board.
I make no judgement. Just another side to the coin. I wondered how fast I would be personally attacked for a dissenting thought.
There's a big difference between anti-white and pro-integration. And Islam does not represent hating America. Your comment was deliberately done to provoke a response.
I had a poster of Ali on my wall for many years. Some of his great lines, e.g. "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee", are an inspiration to many.
BUT, could someone please explain to me what a fella who made his money by punching other people (mostly black people) in the face has to do with a company that sells mobile phones and computers?
There are far more people worthy of this kind of attention and respect than Ali, surely.
Apple's "Think Different" campaign used iconic celebrities. People that stood out from the crowd. Inspired people. Cleared their own paths through the noise of the world. Didn't just follow the trends. Although I'm not into boxing and I didn't follow Ali's career at all, over the past few days, I've come to see why he was admired. He was bold, different, unique. People noticed. That is why Apple included him. It makes sense.
Ali was racist. There is no dispute. But he wasn't in your face about it.
There the was nothing good about Nation of Islam either.
And cheating on your wife is bad. Ali did that too.
As as a person, everything be has good and bad. Ali had a lot of his good and bad known because he was a public figure.
To to me he was a man fortunate to make a name for himself and a lot of money in sports. I can't think of anything he did to actually help people at large.
But it he was larger than life, was not free funny and provided people with tremendous entertainment.
Hes left behind a family, some of whom ARE trying to help people at large and
hes he's now gone. And it's polite to pay respect. But he was simply a man, faults and all. No reason to pretend otherwise.
That said, I see no reason for anyone to point out his faults at this time as its very sensitive to his family and loved ones. No more than we'd like folks to do it to our family members when they pass on.
It's pretty easy to hate those that hate and oppress you.
Nice. Wish they would have done one for Prince too.
You're probably going to disagree, but I don't think Prince was as influential as Muhammad Ali. Not everyone gets to be on Apple's homepage just because they die and were popular. People who changed the world do, Prince was not one of those. He was great, but not really an inspiration to most people like Ali and others that were on Think Different posters.
I'm not here to argue that Prince was more influential than Ali (I don't think he was) but he's right up there with Elvis and Michael Jackson in terms of major cultural icons IMO. The day he died here in the US all 4 major networks broke in to their daytime programming with a special news report announcing his death. That doesn't happen for just any celebrity. CNN was basically non stop coverage for days. I live one mile from Paisley Park and for an entire week national news media satellite trucks were parked outside the place. I drive by his house every day on the way to/from work. The street his house is on was closed for an entire month and every day I drove home from work there were a steady stream of people walking the fence around his property either reading tributes others left or leaving their own. Below is one example:
Of course people are never going to agree on who is worthy or not so maybe Apple should stop doing it all together.
You're probably going to disagree, but I don't think Prince was as influential as Muhammad Ali. Not everyone gets to be on Apple's homepage just because they die and were popular. People who changed the world do, Prince was not one of those. He was great, but not really an inspiration to most people like Ali and others that were on Think Different posters.
I'm not here to argue that Prince was more influential than Ali (I don't think he was) but he's right up there with Elvis and Michael Jackson in terms of major cultural icons IMO. The day he died here in the US all 4 major networks broke in to their daytime programming with a special news report announcing his death. That doesn't happen for just any celebrity. CNN was basically non stop coverage for days. I live one mile from Paisley Park and for an entire week national news media satellite trucks were parked outside the place. I drive by his house every day on the way to/from work. The street his house is on was closed for an entire month and every day I drove home from work there were a steady stream of people walking the fence around his property either reading tributes others left or leaving their own. Below is one example:
Of course people are never going to agree on who is worthy or not so maybe Apple should stop doing it all together.
Not at all. Pictures of flowers mean little -- think, for example, about the number of flowers that will show up when Kim Kardashian moves on (and no, I am not comparing Prince to KK).
Ali was one of the icons celebrated in (inarguably) the most famous ad series that Apple has ever run, viewed by Apple as being in the same league as Gandhi, MLK, Edison, Einstein... it is only natural that Apple would memorialize him in this fashion. I realize that Prince meant a lot to you (after all, his face is now your avatar), but please move on.
It is useful to remember the racial attitudes at the time ...
For example, when Ali fought Patterson in Las Vegas (1965*) neither participant could stay at a Las Vegas hotel -- Las Vegas was a segregated town. Hotels in the [separate] town of North Las Vegas was where non-white minorities stayed.
Did they do one for Michael Jackson when he passed?
I wondered that myself. Not sure.
I looked on the web archiver (see below) and I don't see anything about Michael Jackson on Apple's front page during the time he died in 2009. Again, while he was great, not really someone who influenced the world as a whole, or at least how Apple see's it. He's not a Ghandi in other words.
There the was nothing good about Nation of Islam either.
And cheating on your wife is bad. Ali did that too.
As as a person, everything be has good and bad. Ali had a lot of his good and bad known because he was a public figure.
To to me he was a man fortunate to make a name for himself and a lot of money in sports. I can't think of anything he did to actually help people at large.
But it he was larger than life, was not free funny and provided people with tremendous entertainment.
Hes left behind a family, some of whom ARE trying to help people at large and
hes he's now gone. And it's polite to pay respect. But he was simply a man, faults and all. No reason to pretend otherwise.
That said, I see no reason for anyone to point out his faults at this time as its very sensitive to his family and loved ones. No more than we'd like folks to do it to our family members when they pass on.
It is useful to remember the racial attitudes at the time ...
For example, when Ali fought Patterson in Las Vegas (1965*) neither participant could stay at a Las Vegas hotel -- Las Vegas was a segregated town. Hotels in the [separate] town of North Las Vegas was where non-white minorities stayed.
I don't know if this changed for Ali's later fights in Las Vegas, as we moved to ChicagoLand in 1968.
As a Swede, I can only confirm the racial attitude in boxing from the heavyweight champion fight between Floyd Patterson and Ingemar Johansson (INGO) when the Patterson lost the title to INGO in 1959. Unfortunately, it was the white supremacy ideas that got hold of Europeans and white Americans of the time - boxing was back "at home" where it belonged. In the return fight, the following year 1960 F. Patterson won the title back with a spectacular KO in 5th where INGO was counted out unconscious. After the count, Patterson showed his concern for Johansson by cradling his motionless opponent and promising him a rematch, which INGO also lost.
Some years later an Olympic Champion from (ROME 1960) named Cassius Clay won the title from Sonny Liston in 1964.
Boxing was now an affair among Americans that could not ride the same bus, sit on the same bench, go to same schools, etc. as White Americans. The apartheid system of some States Of The Union would not allow this until the middle of the decade of 1970.
I still remember when Muhammad Ali declared that he changed his SLAVE name and religious belief because neither of them would ever help him.
I still remember how upset we Europeans were when Ali was stripped of his title because he refused to fight an unfair war against Vietnam - "No VietCong have never called me nigger" became a slogan against the Vietnam war.
Muhammad Ali became an icon and front figure that was applauded around the world for his continued fight for a modern nonracial USA.
RIP Muhammad Ali and thanks for all the inspiration you have given humanity!
Comments
You're probably going to disagree, but I don't think Prince was as influential as Muhammad Ali. Not everyone gets to be on Apple's homepage just because they die and were popular. People who changed the world do, Prince was not one of those. He was great, but not really an inspiration to most people like Ali and others that were on Think Different posters.
Apple's "Think Different" campaign used iconic celebrities. People that stood out from the crowd. Inspired people. Cleared their own paths through the noise of the world. Didn't just follow the trends. Although I'm not into boxing and I didn't follow Ali's career at all, over the past few days, I've come to see why he was admired. He was bold, different, unique. People noticed. That is why Apple included him. It makes sense.
Of course people are never going to agree on who is worthy or not so maybe Apple should stop doing it all together.
Ali was one of the icons celebrated in (inarguably) the most famous ad series that Apple has ever run, viewed by Apple as being in the same league as Gandhi, MLK, Edison, Einstein... it is only natural that Apple would memorialize him in this fashion. I realize that Prince meant a lot to you (after all, his face is now your avatar), but please move on.
It is useful to remember the racial attitudes at the time ...
For example, when Ali fought Patterson in Las Vegas (1965*) neither participant could stay at a Las Vegas hotel -- Las Vegas was a segregated town. Hotels in the [separate] town of North Las Vegas was where non-white minorities stayed.
* Also, this from the same era:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mississippi_civil_rights_workers'_murders
I don't know if this changed for Ali's later fights in Las Vegas, as we moved to ChicagoLand in 1968.
I looked on the web archiver (see below) and I don't see anything about Michael Jackson on Apple's front page during the time he died in 2009. Again, while he was great, not really someone who influenced the world as a whole, or at least how Apple see's it. He's not a Ghandi in other words.
http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-zirin-muhammad-ali-legacy-20160603-snap-story.html?campaign_id=A100&campaign_type=Email
In the return fight, the following year 1960 F. Patterson won the title back with a spectacular KO in 5th where INGO was counted out unconscious. After the count, Patterson showed his concern for Johansson by cradling his motionless opponent and promising him a rematch, which INGO also lost.
Some years later an Olympic Champion from (ROME 1960) named Cassius Clay won the title from Sonny Liston in 1964.
Boxing was now an affair among Americans that could not ride the same bus, sit on the same bench, go to same schools, etc. as White Americans. The apartheid system of some States Of The Union would not allow this until the middle of the decade of 1970.
I still remember when Muhammad Ali declared that he changed his SLAVE name and religious belief because neither of them would ever help him.
I still remember how upset we Europeans were when Ali was stripped of his title because he refused to fight an unfair war against Vietnam - "No VietCong have never called me nigger" became a slogan against the Vietnam war.
Muhammad Ali became an icon and front figure that was applauded around the world for his continued fight for a modern nonracial USA.
RIP Muhammad Ali and thanks for all the inspiration you have given humanity!