Charles Barkley doesn’t speak for every black person in America believe it or not. While he is entitled to his opinion, I believe at times he believes his opinion is the only one that matters. You can tell by his comments he doesn’t fully grasp the concept of a grand jury and also ignores some of the blatant favoritism shown by the prosecutor towards Darren Wilson.
Here is what Barkley had to say.
“The true story came out from the grand jury testimony,” Barkley said, adding that he was made aware of “key forensic evidence, and several black witnesses that supported Officer Darren Wilson’s story…” He continued, “I can’t believe anything I hear on television anymore. And, that’s why I don’t like talking about race issues with the media anymore, because they (the media) love this stuff, and lead people to jump to conclusions. The media shouldn’t do that. They never do that when black people kill each other. “
He also called those who rioted after the decision was announced “scumbags,” and said “There is no excuse for people to be out there burning down people’s businesses, burning down police cars.”
“[W]e have to be really careful with the cops, because if it wasn’t for the cops we would be living in the Wild, Wild West in our neighborhoods,” he said. “We can’t pick out certain incidentals that don’t go our way and act like the cops are all bad…. Do you know how bad some of these neighborhoods would be if it wasn’t for the cops?”
Barkley believes that all of black people issues are of their own doing and while there are plenty of things that the black community can do better, it is ignorant to ignore what is happening on almost a weekly basis with cops shooting at and sometimes killing unarmed individuals. Do I feel people should be burning down buildings, of course not, do I think there are some criminals in Missouri who are taking advantage of the situation to commit crimes, I certainly do, but I am more focused on the people who have stop their lives to raise awareness by peacefully protesting about a serious problem in our society. Scumbags as Barkley described them just aren’t people burning cars, but crooked cops and politicians who frankly don’t care about black people or black people lives.
I think where people like Barkley and others get confused is that they believe black people want some unfair advantage when we just want a fair shake. If there are multiple conflicting witnesses take it to trial. When you roll up on a black person don’t assume the worse. Don’t shoot and ask question later. What people are asking for isn’t unreasonable. We know all cops aren’t bad, we know all white people aren’t racists, but it is hard not to feel that way when you are being treated like subhumans.
Even if you believe Darren Wilson, how do you explain how Ferguson has been treated over these past couple of months?
Barkley wasn’t in Ferguson, he is detached from the situation, as I said he is entitled to his opinion, but it is an opinion I and others don’t share.
H/T Yahoo