Charles Barkley: Sometimes racial profiling is right
Charles Barkley held a lengthy interview on Tuesday with CNN, in which he upheld comments he made earlier criticizing the violence in Ferguson.
“We never discuss race in this country until something bad happens,” he said. He called for dialogue and an end to “tribe mentality” that dominates racial discussions, saying, “Everybody wants to protect their own tribe, whether they are right or wrong,” he said.
Barkley doesn’t believe that white cops specifically set out to shoot black people but that the situation in these neighborhoods has built a culture where that is the norm. “We as black people, we have a lot of crooks. We can’t just wait until something like (the Brown shooting) happens. We have to look at ourselves in the mirror,” he said. “There is a reason that they racially profile us in the way they do. Sometimes it is wrong, and sometimes it is right.
Barkley went on to again criticize the violence and looting in Ferguson, saying that it detracts from the conversation the country should be having about race. “One of the problems with this entire situation is there’s so much noise going on, you never get to the crux of the issue that you need to be discussing,” he said.
He clarified his position to point out that he did not have a problem with peaceful protests but with the looters and arsonists. “Anybody who walks out peacefully, who protests peacefully, that’s what this country was built on,” he said. “But to be burning people’s property, burning police cars, looting people’s stores, that is 100% ridiculous.”
During the rest of the interview, Barkley touched on other hot topics such as Ray Rice, Eric Garner and income disparity.
