Monday, October 27, 2014

The "Round Mound", (Charles Barkley), Strikes Again!


Charles Barkley is probably the most famous player in all of sports who has never won a championship, and undoubtedly the most outspoken. Barkley never minces, words and his unsensored, unfiltered, take on, well......just about everything tends to rub people the wrong way, especially some African-American's. However, in a world where political correctness has "watered down" free speech, I find Barkley's honesty refreshing. In reference to segment of African-American's who take offense to his latest comments, I say this, there is no dignity, valor, or courage involved in being mad a anyone for acknowledging the existence of a problem in the Black community. A secret is not a solution to a problem, it is a denial.

Charles Barkley hasn't met a sensitive topic he couldn't dig into, and now he's speaking on what he calls a "dirty, dark secret" in the African-American community.

During an interview with a Philadelphia radio station, Barkley expounded on claims that Seattle Seahawkes quarterback, Russel Wilson wasn't liked by some of his teammates in part because he wasn't considered to be "black enough."

Barkley said he wasn't at all surprised.

"There are a lot of black people who are unintelligent, who don't have success," Barkley said. "It's best to knock a successful black person down 'cause they're intelligent, they speak well, they do well in school, and they're successful. It's crabs in a barrel. ... We're the only ethnic group that says, 'hey, if you go to jail, it gives you street cred.' "

The concept of "crabs in a barrel" isn't new, and it's universal. If you've ever seen a bucket of crabs at the market, the ones at the bottom will try to pull down the crabs that are closer to the top.

"I lived this, and if it weren't for my parents I wouldn't have pushed through it," one Twitter user said in response to Barkley's comments.

Education advocate Dr. Steve Perry

 is another observer who agrees with Barkley.

Others have been irked by Barkley's delivery. When Perry tweeted that he applauded Barkley's remarks, some responded that they bristled at Barkley's tendency to generalize the experience of an entire group.

"Unfortunately, as I tell my white friends, we as black people, we're never going to be successful not because of you white people but because of other black people," Barkley said. "When you're black, you have to deal with so much crap in your life from other black people. It's a dirty, dark secret; I'm glad it's coming out."

As previously reported in The PRBrrown Report, the controversy began with a comment from Bleacher Reports Mike Freeman, who said some of Wilson's Seahawks teammates don't care for him because "they think he's too close to the front office," he "doesn't always take the blame with teammates for mistakes he makes," and "some of the black players think Wilson isn't black enough."

PR


No comments:

Post a Comment