By Jessica Chasmar - The Washington Times - Sunday, October 26, 2014
Retired NBA star Charles Barkley spoke candidly Thursday about the struggles black people face to fit in with each other, arguing that blacks “are brainwashed to think, if you’re not a thug or an idiot, you’re not black enough.”
“We as black people are never going to be successful, not because of you white people, but because of other black people,” he said in a Philadelphia radio interview, The Birmingham News reported. “When you are black, you have to deal with so much crap in your life from other black people.”
Barkley was reacting to recent reports about tensions in the Seattle Seahawks locker room, because quarterback Russell Wilson is supposedly seen among his teammates as not being “black enough.”
“For some reason we are brainwashed to think, if you’re not a thug or an idiot, you’re not black enough,” Barkley continued Thursday. “If you go to school, make good grades, speak intelligent, and don’t break the law, you’re not a good black person. It’s a dirty, dark secret in the black community.
“There are a lot of black people who are unintelligent, who don’t have success,” he continued. “It’s best to knock a successful black person down because they’re intelligent, they speak well, they do well in school, and they’re successful. It’s just typical BS that goes on when you’re black, man.”