Charles Barkley: 'Brainwashed' blacks hold up success | CNN
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 Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson wasn’t liked by some of his teammates in part because he wasn’t considered to be “black enough.”
“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.