Social media has played a vital role in bringing the Black Lives Matter movement to the forefront of public conversation. But last week, boxing legend Laila Ail explained to The Huffington Post why she opts out of participating in political discussions online.
Ali explained to host Jacques Morel that she doesn’t find social media to be an appropriate platform for communicating her desire for racial equality.
“By me not posting, it doesn’t mean that black lives don’t matter,” she said. “To me, it’s obvious that black lives matter. And then... I’m like, what is posting going to do? What is speaking out going to do?”
With sponsors and millions of Facebook fans, Ali said she has to be careful when posting content online because of her diverse following. “I don’t ever like to make people feel separate,” she said. It’s for this reason that she says she appreciates all aspects of diversity and inclusion.
“Yes, black lives matter. Yes, white lives matter, asian lives matter. All lives matter,” she said. “And that’s kind of what my focus is. But it’s hard because, you know, you’ve got sponsors and you’ve got this and you’ve got that. And you don’t want to step on anybody’s toes. And you’re trying to be politically correct, but at the same time trying to uplift your people.”
Using her children as a metaphor, Ali explained that it’s important to understand the impact and change people can have within their own homes.
“I would think about what can I do as a family to take responsibility for our actions,” she said. “So, I think as black people, we have to do the things that we can do to make a change within our own community within ourselves first and then let the trickle effect happen.”
Watch the clip from the interview in the video above and the full conversation with Ali in the one below.
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