‘My Thinking Was Messed up’ Laila Ali Once Gave Her ‘Overweight’ Bully a Piece of Her Mind After She Picked on One of Her Sisters

Former women’s super-middleweight champion Laila Ali has had a very complicated relationship with her family. Despite being the daughter of boxing legend Muhammad Ali, Laila was only one of nine children. Moreover, her troubles would only get worse after she revealed that her relationship with her step-siblings wasn’t too great. The former champion often got into altercations with her sisters and brothers mainly due to jealousy spewing in them.

Moreover, fighting for their father’s love and attention which was very limited at the time made the animosity between the siblings far worse. However, there was one sister she felt close to, Hana who she even tried to defend from a bully.

Laila Ali reveals how she failed to save her sister

In her book Reach! Finding Strength, Spirit and Personal Power, Laila reveals how she was shocked after seeing her sister, Hana get picked on by a bully named Norma. Although Laila was confident that Hana could handle herself, she didn’t expect her to be picked on.

“My thinking was messed up. I remember Norma. She was overweight and unattractive and picked on my sister Hana, who had a tough veneer. I was certain that Hana could take care of herself. One day Norma instigated a fight with Hana. I watched in shock. The fight was over before it started. Hana didn’t defend herself, and I felt bad there wasn’t even time to jump in and fight for my sister,” she wrote.

However, she then claimed that Hana was stronger than her for not resorting to violence against her bully, which she could not have. In addition, she also gave the bully a piece of her mind which might have affected Norma in a bad way.

Laila details an altercation with a school bully

In the next paragraph, Laila claimed that she confronted Norma the next time they met. However, instead of physically beating her, she made some witty comments to insult her which might have left a more lasting impact on her than violence could have. However, this also made Laila feel bad for Norma.

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“Next time I saw Norma, I gave her a piece of my mind. ‘You ain’t nothing but ghetto,’ I told her. ‘You don’t even know what a ghetto is,’ Norma barked back. ‘Yes I do.’ ‘Then what is it?’ ‘A ghetto is where poor people run around barefoot.’ Norma sneered. I thought she was going to try to fight me. She just laughed though and walked away. But in her little laugh, I heard her hurt. And that made me feel bad,” she added.

According to Laila, she didn’t have a proper understanding of her people’s culture which was in a volatile state at the time. She also claimed that her ‘racial perspective’ was clogged which made her say such insensitive comments to her bully. However, Laila was a kid at the time and didn’t understand the broader impact of the smaller things she said.

What did you think about Laila confronting the bully who fought her sister? Let us know in the comments.

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