History is full of some ridiculous moments that are not crowed about today because in hindsight they look, and in fact are, so stupid.
One such moment is the events surrounding the Galveston Giant, John 'Jack' Johnson becoming the first African world heavyweight boxing champion a day after Christmas in 1908.
At the turn of the century boxing like many other sports was segregated and the world heavy weight championship was de facto reserved for white boxers. When a good black boxer Jack Johnson came onto the scene the then world heavyweight champion James Jeffries refused to fight him. Jeffries retired without fighting Johnson.
Eventually a Canadian, Tommy Burns, became world heavyweight champion and agreed to fight Johnson, for a healthy purse of course. Johnson defeated Burns and became the first black world heavyweight boxing Champion.
This triggered resentment and animosity among whites and it was called for James Jeffries, then regarded the best boxer of all time, to come out of retirement and defeat Johnson. He was dubbed "The Great White Hope".
Jeffries agreed to the fight and in his own words, "I am going into this fight for the sole purpose of proving that a white man is better than a negro."
Thus on July 4, 1910, James Jeffries faced Jack Johnson "for the sole purpose of proving that a white man is better than a negro." By the 4th round it was clear Jeffries was not going to win. He spend much of the rest of the fight running and ducking away from Johnson.
By the 13th round it was clear Jeffries wouldn't last the distance. In the fifteenth round Jeffries was knocked down, he got up he and was immediately knocked OUT OF the ring. Punch drunk, he clawed and staggered his way back into the ring and was immediately knocked down for the third time.
The referee was not stopping the fight so James Jeffries' manager rushed into the ring and got between the two boxers. He was not gonna let his man die trying to prove that "a white man is better than a negro".
That was in boxing over a century ago. Long before the time of Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Mike Tyson and the Klitschko demolition pair.
The same ridiculous scene seems to be playing itself out, this time in American politics. Whenever Donald Trump is faced with tough questions he brings up Obama's presidency in negative light. When quizzed by a reporter over recent deaths of American soldiers in Niger, without being prompted Trump started casting himself in better light than Obama.
Despite the media reacting in a way that made it clear they were not buying that line of defence, a day later Trump brought up Obama in negative light again. Again the reporter had not asked about Obama.
One does not need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that Trump probably imagines himself the Great White Hope of politics. A man on a mission to prove that a white male president is better than a black president.
His obsession with Obamacare, his tinkering with the Iran deal against the advise of all America's allies except Israel, suggest that he is on a mission to prove that whatever Obama did, it was wrong. Donald Trump, a white man, can do better no matter what the circumstances.
On the contrary, I think he has spectacularly managed to prove that the man called Donald Trump is small minded. I think he is definitely unfit to be president of any country not just America. Not only is he unfit but he is dangerously irrational.
I do not consider Obama to be the best American president ever, but he is way way better than Donald Trump. American congress has to step into the ring and stop Trump from dying trying to prove he is better than Obama,
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