Up until now I’ve left it to Bill Cosby to say all the things I as a white guy, can’t say in public about black people. Now it seems I have a new voice, Charles Barkley. This quote from an article in “The New Republic” pretty much says it all… take it away Chuck!
Question: In some quarters Barack [Obama] has been criticized for not being black enough.
Well, that’s because black people are fucked up. One of the reasons that black people are not going to be successful is because of other black people. We tell black kids that if they make good grades, they are acting white. If they speak well, we tell them that they are acting white. We have a lot of demons in our own closet–in our own family–that we have to address. But first of all, we want black men to be intelligent and articulate and things like that. That’s not acting white. That’s the way it should be. … We become our own worst enemy with random black-on-black crime, teen pregnancy, single-parent homes. You know we cannot blaming white America for our ills. Does racism exist? Of course it does. But, at some point, I have to make sure I am educated. I don’t have ten kids and no job. I am not killing other black people. At some point, you have to grow up.
Beyond Basketball: Race, Class, And Politics
Later!