[img]1612|left|Najee Ali||no_popup[/img]Shlepping a suitcase full of color, charm and controversy, Najee Ali, salesman, at the zenith of his latest rebound, is my nominee for The Most Interesting Personality in Los Angeles.
Not the most sin-free. But then who among us is?
Your mother might frown the first time you bring him home for dinner since he is not a doctor, banker, lawyer or corporate titan.
[img]1613|left|||no_popup[/img]Mr. Ali, indisputably, is a magnet in the sometimes amorphous world of the sprawling, brawling war for social justice in the black community.
He sprawls, he brawls – and those are shining assets, his many backers will attest.
He smiles easily, genuinely and swiftly, as he was doing all last evening in Baldwin Hills at a book signing for his first-ever volume that carries a typical Ali title, “Raising Hell.”
He has.
He also has paid for it, big, several times.
Time Out for Redeeming
He has turned the page, heavily, however, and now the subject is golden redemption.
[img]1614|left|||no_popup[/img]Four years after being sentenced to four years in state prison for pleading guilty to intimidating a witness at his daughter’s trial, he is all the way back.
A beaming Mr. Ali was straddling a mountain peak last evening at the Operation Hope Cyber Cafe on LaBrea where dozens of supporters vigorously cheered his literary accomplishment, from Gary, IN, to a lofty pinnacle that makes some persons grimace.
Assessing Ali
Raising Hell is an 18-chapter blend of autobiography and often upper volume contemporary narrative that should burnish his credentials as The Most Interesting Personality In Los Angeles. Rodney King and Michael Jackson occupy starring roles.
A friend says of the author:
Ali’s a funny character about which there is much, shall we say, controversy — both within the black community and outside it. Recently I was arguing with folks about his worth, or lack thereof, as a community voice.
He created himself as community spokesperson, not because he really represented any constituency, but based almost solely on personal chutzpah, and an ability to show up everywhere, Zelig-like, when there was some conflict brewing, and then manage to have something quotable to say when reporters were looking for sound bites.
Born to pace his life in a blur on the dead run, he has crammed 98 years of fulltime living into 49 years, an identical twin to the revolutionary self-made man.
Mr. Ali’s most galled critics are the more conservative types in the black community, not to mention law enforcement. They are both irritated and confounded by his 14 years of celebrated prominence and high regard for social justice achievements given his checkered resumé.
Significantly, he is having the last 10 laughs on those who scorn him. He knows people in high places. They like him, and that, too, spurs jealousy and criticism.
U.S. Rep. Karen Bass (D-Culver City), who just won her second term in Congress, wrote the forward to Raising Hell.
“When you see the amount of support I have from other leaders,” Mr. Ali said, “such as Congresswoman Bass, Sen. Curren Price, the Mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, the President of the United States, Barack Obama, the Rev. Al Sharpton – I have relationships and friendships with all of those elected officials. I work hand-in-hand with many different community leaders.”
(To be continued)
