Charles Barkley "Not Black Enough" (1 Viewer)

[uconnalum]

I am glad this is getting some press. I read this last week regarding the locker room comment made towards Russel Wilson. I don't understand the mentality of the African-American male. Also there has been talk around the Black Community that Charles Barkley should of kept his mouth shut because this is widely known in the black community but never spoken sort of an unwritten law.

http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/charles-barkley-blacks-brainwashed-black-article-1.1987784

What is the FFA take on this...

 

[ConnSKINS26]

Isn't this just a repeat of calling RG3 a "cornball brother" or whatever?

 

[sublimeone]

As usual, sir Charles is spot-on

 

[Mario Kart]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnC6ONe5ZXM

 

[Abraham]

Chuck is ####### awesome.

 

[The Big Guy]

Hey guess what? Some black folks make fun of each other over their darkness too. White people make fun of rednecks, Polish people and jews. Spanish people have a pecking order based on which country they are descended from.

People rag on each other and find reasons for doing so, for better or worse.

 

[TobiasFunke]

Here's your opposing view, from Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Barkley is great at his job and his frankness is always entertaining, but I suspect he has about 0.0001% of the understanding of history/sociology that someone like Coates possesses.

 

[avoiding injuries]

Meh. So tired of race discussions. They seem to make headlines every other day, yet I can't remember the last time it came up directly in my daily life.

It's hard to generate the energy to care.

 

[mr roboto]

Here's your opposing view, from Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Barkley is great at his job and his frankness is always entertaining, but I suspect he has about 0.0001% of the understanding of history/sociology that someone like Coates possesses.

Fascinating article. Completely irrelevant to what Chuck is discussing however. By using the lynching historical analogy he made damn sure this wasn't going to be a helpful article.

It allows the Charles Barkleys of the world and the racists who undoubtedly will approvingly quote him to pretend that they are exposing some heretofore arcane bit of knowledge. In fact they are employing two of the most disreputable traditions in American politicsfalse equivalence and an appeal to respectability. This is the black tradition that believed that "brutes" were partially responsible for lynching in 20th century, and believes that those some brutes are partially responsible for the "achievement gap" in the 21st.

According to the author, there were many educated black academics who tried to blame lynchings in the 1800s on the propensity for certain blacks to be brutes and horrible criminals. these academics believed that if the civilized blacks would step forward and influence behavior of the small number of criminals, that the lynchings would cease or be reduced greatly and as a race the black community would become respectable. Then you have Miss Wells, who came to the realization that these lynchings were not often justified due to criminal behavior, and that lynchings were a pretext for knocking down successful blacks who were not criminals but rather keeping them from acquiring property and advancing as a race.What Barkley is talking about has nothing to do with some white conspiracy to keep intelligent blacks down by what, using ignorant blacks to shame them into not becoming good students? The author would contend that the presence of uneducated and violent and thuggish blacks is solely the fault of white supremacy. According to the analogy given, it is completely unacceptable to this author to place any personal responsibility on the shoulders of the ignorant when they are trying to hold down those who are attempting to become educated and be successful.

I don't pretend to know the first thing about the history of racism or have any idea about how to promote advancement among minority populations. I do know, though, that if there is a cultural assumption that becoming educated, well spoken and integrated into the greater community is considered selling out to your culture, there is little hope that there will be meaningful advancement in the black community. I do not feel that you can blame this cultural challenge solely on the history of white supremacy in the United States.

 

[urbanhack]

I am glad this is getting some press.

Yes...me too. I had trouble sleeping last night.

 

[TobiasFunke]

Here's your opposing view, from Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Barkley is great at his job and his frankness is always entertaining, but I suspect he has about 0.0001% of the understanding of history/sociology that someone like Coates possesses.

Fascinating article. Completely irrelevant to what Chuck is discussing however. By using the lynching historical analogy he made damn sure this wasn't going to be a helpful article.

It allows the Charles Barkleys of the world and the racists who undoubtedly will approvingly quote him to pretend that they are exposing some heretofore arcane bit of knowledge. In fact they are employing two of the most disreputable traditions in American politicsfalse equivalence and an appeal to respectability. This is the black tradition that believed that "brutes" were partially responsible for lynching in 20th century, and believes that those some brutes are partially responsible for the "achievement gap" in the 21st.

According to the author, there were many educated black academics who tried to blame lynchings in the 1800s on the propensity for certain blacks to be brutes and horrible criminals. these academics believed that if the civilized blacks would step forward and influence behavior of the small number of criminals, that the lynchings would cease or be reduced greatly and as a race the black community would become respectable. Then you have Miss Wells, who came to the realization that these lynchings were not often justified due to criminal behavior, and that lynchings were a pretext for knocking down successful blacks who were not criminals but rather keeping them from acquiring property and advancing as a race.What Barkley is talking about has nothing to do with some white conspiracy to keep intelligent blacks down by what, using ignorant blacks to shame them into not becoming good students? The author would contend that the presence of uneducated and violent and thuggish blacks is solely the fault of white supremacy. According to the analogy given, it is completely unacceptable to this author to place any personal responsibility on the shoulders of the ignorant when they are trying to hold down those who are attempting to become educated and be successful.

I don't pretend to know the first thing about the history of racism or have any idea about how to promote advancement among minority populations. I do know, though, that if there is a cultural assumption that becoming educated, well spoken and integrated into the greater community is considered selling out to your culture, there is little hope that there will be meaningful advancement in the black community. I do not feel that you can blame this cultural challenge solely on the history of white supremacy in the United States.

All due respect, but think maybe you missed the point, based on the bolded.

I think the idea behind the article is that the cause and effect you assume here isn't really true. In other words, while the "sell out" thing may be true to some extent (although I'm not sure many black people consider being educated a cultural sellout), it also has little to nothing to do with the relative lack of "meaningful advancement." There are much much bigger factors at work, and pretending that the sellout mentality is primarily or significantly to blame basically just gives people cover from having take a long hard look at our history, including recent history.

 

[The General]

Love Barkley, one of best people in sports to hear interview with. Even when you think he's full of crap you can see his point.

This isn't just a black thing. Every race has haters.

 

[mr roboto]

Here's your opposing view, from Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Barkley is great at his job and his frankness is always entertaining, but I suspect he has about 0.0001% of the understanding of history/sociology that someone like Coates possesses.

Fascinating article. Completely irrelevant to what Chuck is discussing however. By using the lynching historical analogy he made damn sure this wasn't going to be a helpful article.

It allows the Charles Barkleys of the world and the racists who undoubtedly will approvingly quote him to pretend that they are exposing some heretofore arcane bit of knowledge. In fact they are employing two of the most disreputable traditions in American politicsfalse equivalence and an appeal to respectability. This is the black tradition that believed that "brutes" were partially responsible for lynching in 20th century, and believes that those some brutes are partially responsible for the "achievement gap" in the 21st.

According to the author, there were many educated black academics who tried to blame lynchings in the 1800s on the propensity for certain blacks to be brutes and horrible criminals. these academics believed that if the civilized blacks would step forward and influence behavior of the small number of criminals, that the lynchings would cease or be reduced greatly and as a race the black community would become respectable. Then you have Miss Wells, who came to the realization that these lynchings were not often justified due to criminal behavior, and that lynchings were a pretext for knocking down successful blacks who were not criminals but rather keeping them from acquiring property and advancing as a race.What Barkley is talking about has nothing to do with some white conspiracy to keep intelligent blacks down by what, using ignorant blacks to shame them into not becoming good students? The author would contend that the presence of uneducated and violent and thuggish blacks is solely the fault of white supremacy. According to the analogy given, it is completely unacceptable to this author to place any personal responsibility on the shoulders of the ignorant when they are trying to hold down those who are attempting to become educated and be successful.

I don't pretend to know the first thing about the history of racism or have any idea about how to promote advancement among minority populations. I do know, though, that if there is a cultural assumption that becoming educated, well spoken and integrated into the greater community is considered selling out to your culture, there is little hope that there will be meaningful advancement in the black community. I do not feel that you can blame this cultural challenge solely on the history of white supremacy in the United States.

All due respect, but think maybe you missed the point, based on the bolded.

I think the idea behind the article is that the cause and effect you assume here isn't really true. In other words, while the "sell out" thing may be true to some extent (although I'm not sure many black people consider being educated a cultural sellout), it also has little to nothing to do with the relative lack of "meaningful advancement." There are much much bigger factors at work, and pretending that the sellout mentality is primarily or significantly to blame basically just gives people cover from having take a long hard look at our history, including recent history.

I agree there are far more factors than the "sell out culture". I also agree that the history of the treatment of blacks and African Americans in this country is absolutely a travesty. But I also believe that African-American advocates in academics and politics tend to have such a strong belief that the current problems of the African-American culture are almost entirely due to racism and cultural hegemony that they have a very hard time signing any personal responsibility within the community itself.I asserted that the author place all of the blame on white supremacy because, well, he asserted as much in the beginning of the article.

I've written on this several times and there's really no need to do it again. I simply maintain, as I always have, that if aliens were to compare the socioeconomic realities of the black community with the history of their treatment in this country, they would not be mystified. Respectability politics is, at its root, the inability to look into the cold dark void of history. For if black people areas I maintainno part of the problem, if the problem truly is 100 percent explained by white supremacy, then we are presented with a set of unfortunate facts about our home.

If you consider yourself a spokesperson on this issue and have such an absolute view of the fault of the current situation with no room for new any nuance or potential factors or interpretations, I am going to read your work with a high level of skepticism. This has nothing to do with the topic at hand, but rather is a level of intellectual dishonesty and inflexibility that causes me to highly doubt the conclusions.

 

[TobiasFunke]

Here's your opposing view, from Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Barkley is great at his job and his frankness is always entertaining, but I suspect he has about 0.0001% of the understanding of history/sociology that someone like Coates possesses.

Fascinating article. Completely irrelevant to what Chuck is discussing however. By using the lynching historical analogy he made damn sure this wasn't going to be a helpful article.

It allows the Charles Barkleys of the world and the racists who undoubtedly will approvingly quote him to pretend that they are exposing some heretofore arcane bit of knowledge. In fact they are employing two of the most disreputable traditions in American politicsfalse equivalence and an appeal to respectability. This is the black tradition that believed that "brutes" were partially responsible for lynching in 20th century, and believes that those some brutes are partially responsible for the "achievement gap" in the 21st.

According to the author, there were many educated black academics who tried to blame lynchings in the 1800s on the propensity for certain blacks to be brutes and horrible criminals. these academics believed that if the civilized blacks would step forward and influence behavior of the small number of criminals, that the lynchings would cease or be reduced greatly and as a race the black community would become respectable. Then you have Miss Wells, who came to the realization that these lynchings were not often justified due to criminal behavior, and that lynchings were a pretext for knocking down successful blacks who were not criminals but rather keeping them from acquiring property and advancing as a race.What Barkley is talking about has nothing to do with some white conspiracy to keep intelligent blacks down by what, using ignorant blacks to shame them into not becoming good students? The author would contend that the presence of uneducated and violent and thuggish blacks is solely the fault of white supremacy. According to the analogy given, it is completely unacceptable to this author to place any personal responsibility on the shoulders of the ignorant when they are trying to hold down those who are attempting to become educated and be successful.

I don't pretend to know the first thing about the history of racism or have any idea about how to promote advancement among minority populations. I do know, though, that if there is a cultural assumption that becoming educated, well spoken and integrated into the greater community is considered selling out to your culture, there is little hope that there will be meaningful advancement in the black community. I do not feel that you can blame this cultural challenge solely on the history of white supremacy in the United States.

All due respect, but think maybe you missed the point, based on the bolded.

I think the idea behind the article is that the cause and effect you assume here isn't really true. In other words, while the "sell out" thing may be true to some extent (although I'm not sure many black people consider being educated a cultural sellout), it also has little to nothing to do with the relative lack of "meaningful advancement." There are much much bigger factors at work, and pretending that the sellout mentality is primarily or significantly to blame basically just gives people cover from having take a long hard look at our history, including recent history.

I agree there are far more factors than the "sell out culture". I also agree that the history of the treatment of blacks and African Americans in this country is absolutely a travesty. But I also believe that African-American advocates in academics and politics tend to have such a strong belief that the current problems of the African-American culture are almost entirely due to racism and cultural hegemony that they have a very hard time signing any personal responsibility within the community itself.I asserted that the author place all of the blame on white supremacy because, well, he asserted as much in the beginning of the article.

I've written on this several times and there's really no need to do it again. I simply maintain, as I always have, that if aliens were to compare the socioeconomic realities of the black community with the history of their treatment in this country, they would not be mystified. Respectability politics is, at its root, the inability to look into the cold dark void of history. For if black people areas I maintainno part of the problem, if the problem truly is 100 percent explained by white supremacy, then we are presented with a set of unfortunate facts about our home.

If you consider yourself a spokesperson on this issue and have such an absolute view of the fault of the current situation with no room for new any nuance or potential factors or interpretations, I am going to read your work with a high level of skepticism. This has nothing to do with the topic at hand, but rather is a level of intellectual dishonesty and inflexibility that causes me to highly doubt the conclusions.

I don't think he's blaming white supremacy for "the presence of violence or thuggish blacks," I think he's blaming it for the relative economic struggles of blacks.

I agree that he is maybe a little too inflexible in not recognizing the possibility that cultural issues are a negative influence at all. But I think it would have been hard for him to hedge like that and still get across the main point, which is that blaming economic struggles on the cultural thing is harmful and allows people to avoid looking at the harder and more important questions. That, I think, was the point of the lynching analogy- while it's true that people back then could look at some small percentage of lynching victims and conclude that they "deserved" it in some way, doing so allowed them to ignore the much larger problems at hand. Same thing is going on with what Barkley says- while it's no doubt a factor with some subset of the black population, making it out to be a huge problem allows people to ignore the true causes of the problem.

Appreciate your thoughts/tone here BTW. Usually these things turn into silly name-calling and political nonsense pretty much immediately.

 

[saintfool]

As usual, sir Charles is spot-on

Exactly...

According to the officer who wrote the report, "He told me that he ran the stop sign because he was in a hurry to pick up the girl I saw get in the passenger seat."

The officer continues: "He asked me to admit that she was 'hot.' He asked me, 'You want the truth?' When I told him I did he said, 'I was gonna drive around the corner and get a b**w job. He then explained that she had given him a 'b**w job' one week earlier and said it was the best one he had ever had in his life."

The report says when Barkley was taken to the station, he told one of the employees, "I'll tattoo my name on your ###" if he helped "get him out of the DUI." According to the report, "He laughed and then quickly corrected himself and said, 'I'll tattoo your name on my ###' and then laughed again."

 

[mr roboto]

I guess we would have to define what the "problem" is that the author is referring to in his article. I took him to mean that the Socio economic disadvantages of the black community are entirely the fault of a systemic racism and the history of white/black relations in the United States.

Unlike just about every other minority immigrant population, the black community finds itself in the United States largely due to a forced immigration. They brought little to no wealth from their homeland and we're not allowed to accrue generational wealth for over 150 years. This basic fact is probably the single largest reason why the black community lags behind other multi generational immigrant populations. It has also created a suspicion of the dominant white culture which is certainly not inappropriate. I would say that these very real factors which contributed heavily to the current state of the black community have, in some cases and among some academic circles, become an ever present scapegoat which keeps blacks focused on the injustice and inequality of the past instead of constructive prescriptive actions that can be taken to move into the future.

It is entirely possible that the African-American community will always suffer from the legacy of slavery and forced relocation in this country. But hanging that cloud over the communities heads over and over again does nothing to promote positive growth and development in the younger generations of today. And if there is a cultural strain within the African-American community, which no one doubts exists, that says it is inappropriate to be both educated and well spoken and also be "black" then the promising young engineers and scientists and authors and innovators and business people growing up within that culture will find an environment that, instead of fostering those hopes and dreams and talents, actively denigrates what they are trying to achieve.

 

[TobiasFunke]

I guess we would have to define what the "problem" is that the author is referring to in his article. I took him to mean that the Socio economic disadvantages of the black community are entirely the fault of a systemic racism and the history of white/black relations in the United States.

Unlike just about every other minority immigrant population, the black community finds itself in the United States largely due to a forced immigration. They brought little to no wealth from their homeland and we're not allowed to accrue generational wealth for over 150 years. This basic fact is probably the single largest reason why the black community lags behind other multi generational immigrant populations. It has also created a suspicion of the dominant white culture which is certainly not inappropriate. I would say that these very real factors which contributed heavily to the current state of the black community have, in some cases and among some academic circles, become an ever present scapegoat which keeps blacks focused on the injustice and inequality of the past instead of constructive prescriptive actions that can be taken to move into the future.

It is entirely possible that the African-American community will always suffer from the legacy of slavery and forced relocation in this country. But hanging that cloud over the communities heads over and over again does nothing to promote positive growth and development in the younger generations of today. And if there is a cultural strain within the African-American community, which no one doubts exists, that says it is inappropriate to be both educated and well spoken and also be "black" then the promising young engineers and scientists and authors and innovators and business people growing up within that culture will find an environment that, instead of fostering those hopes and dreams and talents, actively denigrates what they are trying to achieve.

FWIW Coates doesn't really focus that much on slavery as much as the things that followed it. Here is his huge piece on race and blacks in America from earlier this year. It's definitely worth a read despite the length (ignore the title, I think it's just an attention-grabber, he really means more of a reckoning with our history than anything. Most of the piece is about far more recent practices- housing discrimination, predatory lending, etc. Stuff that happened during our parents' lifetimes, and in some cases just a couple years ago.

 

[mr roboto]

Added to reading list. Thanks.

 

[Sweet J]

Meh. So tired of race discussions. They seem to make headlines every other day, yet I can't remember the last time it came up directly in my daily life.

It's hard to generate the energy to care.

Let those complainers eat cake.

 

[SacramentoBob]

I don't understand the mentality of the African-American male.

lol

 

[SacramentoBob]

Here's your opposing view, from Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Barkley is great at his job and his frankness is always entertaining, but I suspect he has about 0.0001% of the understanding of history/sociology that someone like Coates possesses.

Not at all responsive to Barkley's claim.

 

[cstu]

"Not black enough" is what dumb black people say out of jealousy.

 

[TobiasFunke]

Here's your opposing view, from Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Barkley is great at his job and his frankness is always entertaining, but I suspect he has about 0.0001% of the understanding of history/sociology that someone like Coates possesses.

Not at all responsive to Barkley's claim.

Disagree, and I explained why I think that above. He's responding to this:

"We as black people are never going to be successful, not because of you white people, but because of other black people. When you are black, you have to deal with so much crap in your life from other black people," Barkley said.

The rest of Barkley's quote is just observations in support of that position. The observations may or may not be true (I'm not sure an ultrarich 51 year old black celebrity knows much more about the current state of "street cred" than a bunch of white nerds on an internet message board), but Coates' argument is with that first statement.

 

[cstu]

Barkley grew up poor in Alabama. I think he has the cred to talk about it.

 

[SacramentoBob]

Barkley grew up poor in Alabama. I think he has the cred to talk about it.

Barkley isn't black enough to tell us about the black experience.

- Tobias

 

[TobiasFunke]

Barkley grew up poor in Alabama. I think he has the cred to talk about it.

Don't want to go too far off-topic since the point isn't whether he's right about the whole "street cred" thing but whether/how much it matters. But Barkley grew up poor in Alabama forty years ago. He arrived at Auburn in 1981. He was a millionaire before Kendrick Lamar was born. I'm not sure he should be our go-to on the current state of young black culture.

 

[cstu]

"Not black enough" is what dumb black people say out of jealousy.

Agreed.

West is a smart guy but he's an extremist with a limited world view.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

It's not just blacks.

"I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man."

Our current Vice President and likely presidential candidate, on his boss and our President.

 

[SacramentoBob]

It's not just blacks.

"I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man."

Our current Vice President and likely presidential candidate, on his boss and our President.

Best thing about Obama is he has no negro dialect.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

It's not just blacks.

"I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man."

Our current Vice President and likely presidential candidate, on his boss and our President.

Best thing about Obama is he has no negro dialect.

Another fer`instance, yes.

 

[SacramentoBob]

Anyway, not to get off-topic, but Barkley is right. Some blacks are just haters towards other blacks that don't fit the stereotype. I don't think that's the majority, but they exist. They'd never be the major factor towards lack of success in America, but they would have some effect at the margins. The Namond Brice's of the world who might turn out successful if not for peer pressure.

 

[TobiasFunke]

Barkley grew up poor in Alabama. I think he has the cred to talk about it.

Don't want to go too far off-topic since the point isn't whether he's right about the whole "street cred" thing but whether/how much it matters. But Barkley grew up poor in Alabama forty years ago. He arrived at Auburn in 1981. He was a millionaire before Kendrick Lamar was born. I'm not sure he should be our go-to on the current state of young black culture.

Who said the "not black enough" mentality is limited to the young?

Barkley talks about how "if you go to school, make good grades, speak intelligent [sic/irony alert] and don't break the law you are not considered a good black person." He's clearly talking about younger people, and presumably how their peers perceive them.

 

[EYLive]

If "black enough" is determined by idiot thugs, why would you want their approval at all?

 

[Sweet J]

Barkley grew up poor in Alabama. I think he has the cred to talk about it.

Don't want to go too far off-topic since the point isn't whether he's right about the whole "street cred" thing but whether/how much it matters. But Barkley grew up poor in Alabama forty years ago. He arrived at Auburn in 1981. He was a millionaire before Kendrick Lamar was born. I'm not sure he should be our go-to on the current state of young black culture.

Who said the "not black enough" mentality is limited to the young?

Barkley talks about how "if you go to school, make good grades, speak intelligent [sic/irony alert] and don't break the law you are not considered a good black person." He's clearly talking about younger people, and presumably how their peers perceive them.

Right. And he isn't far off. There are some folks in the black community who give others in the black community a hard time about some things. This is one of the things I've personally witnessed. Sir Charles has probably too. Sure, we can criticize him for not indicating that this is his own anecdotal experience, and he is generalizing too much. But I don't fault him for telling about his experience (although maybe you could fault him for extrapolating to society writ large).

 

[Dr. Octopus]

Barkley grew up poor in Alabama. I think he has the cred to talk about it.

Don't want to go too far off-topic since the point isn't whether he's right about the whole "street cred" thing but whether/how much it matters. But Barkley grew up poor in Alabama forty years ago. He arrived at Auburn in 1981. He was a millionaire before Kendrick Lamar was born. I'm not sure he should be our go-to on the current state of young black culture.

Doesn't his current job have him dealing with young black culture at least to some small extent and wouldn't anyone on the Seahawks that (allegedly) stated that "Russell Wilson wasn't black enough" be earning a fairly comfortable living at worst?

 

[The Big Guy]

As usual, sir Charles is spot-on

Exactly...

According to the officer who wrote the report, "He told me that he ran the stop sign because he was in a hurry to pick up the girl I saw get in the passenger seat."

The officer continues: "He asked me to admit that she was 'hot.' He asked me, 'You want the truth?' When I told him I did he said, 'I was gonna drive around the corner and get a b**w job. He then explained that she had given him a 'b**w job' one week earlier and said it was the best one he had ever had in his life."

The report says when Barkley was taken to the station, he told one of the employees, "I'll tattoo my name on your ###" if he helped "get him out of the DUI." According to the report, "He laughed and then quickly corrected himself and said, 'I'll tattoo your name on my ###' and then laughed again."

So your point with this is to show that Barkley is human and has a non perfect past, so he can not have a valid opinion on the subject?Turrible

 

[Freelove]

As usual, sir Charles is spot-on

Exactly...

According to the officer who wrote the report, "He told me that he ran the stop sign because he was in a hurry to pick up the girl I saw get in the passenger seat."

The officer continues: "He asked me to admit that she was 'hot.' He asked me, 'You want the truth?' When I told him I did he said, 'I was gonna drive around the corner and get a b**w job. He then explained that she had given him a 'b**w job' one week earlier and said it was the best one he had ever had in his life."

The report says when Barkley was taken to the station, he told one of the employees, "I'll tattoo my name on your ###" if he helped "get him out of the DUI." According to the report, "He laughed and then quickly corrected himself and said, 'I'll tattoo your name on my ###' and then laughed again."

So your point with this is to show that Barkley is human and has a non perfect past, so he can not have a valid opinion on the subject?Turrible

That's a non perfect past?

 

[Todem]

I don't always agree with Chuck.

But he is on point here. It's ridiculous and a real shame.

 

[cstu]

It's not just blacks.

"I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man."

Our current Vice President and likely presidential candidate, on his boss and our President.

He described him as the perfect black guy.

Basically Arizona Ron except the clean part.

 

[sublimeone]

Barkley grew up poor in Alabama. I think he has the cred to talk about it.

Don't want to go too far off-topic since the point isn't whether he's right about the whole "street cred" thing but whether/how much it matters. But Barkley grew up poor in Alabama forty years ago. He arrived at Auburn in 1981. He was a millionaire before Kendrick Lamar was born. I'm not sure he should be our go-to on the current state of young black culture.

Who said the "not black enough" mentality is limited to the young?

Barkley talks about how "if you go to school, make good grades, speak intelligent [sic/irony alert] and don't break the law you are not considered a good black person." He's clearly talking about younger people, and presumably how their peers perceive them.

I co-own a business with a 32 year old black guy. He's echoed Barkley's sentiments to me numerous times.

 

[avoiding injuries]

Barkley grew up poor in Alabama. I think he has the cred to talk about it.

Don't want to go too far off-topic since the point isn't whether he's right about the whole "street cred" thing but whether/how much it matters. But Barkley grew up poor in Alabama forty years ago. He arrived at Auburn in 1981. He was a millionaire before Kendrick Lamar was born. I'm not sure he should be our go-to on the current state of young black culture.

Who said the "not black enough" mentality is limited to the young?

Barkley talks about how "if you go to school, make good grades, speak intelligent [sic/irony alert] and don't break the law you are not considered a good black person." He's clearly talking about younger people, and presumably how their peers perceive them.

I co-own a business with a 32 year old black guy. He's echoed Barkley's sentiments to me numerous times.

They're probably taking into account that if you do those things when you're younger, you end up down a different path as you get older.