Charles Barkley recently interviewed with The New Republic, offering his opinion on today's politics. What does Barkley want to discuss? The War in Iraq? Gay marriage? Rap lyrics?
How about economics?
So is that what interests you primarily–economic issues?
America is divided by economics strictly. You know, people always talk about race, and we have racial problems in this country. Of course we do. But the real issue is the rich against the poor. We’ve got to get poor white people and poor black people and Mexicans to realize they are all in the same boat. If you in one of those three groups and you are poor, you are going to be in a bad neighborhood, you are going to go to a bad school, and you are going to have strikes against you. You can’t commit crimes in good neighborhoods. They will get your ass. Their kids go to private school, or they go to school in a good economic area. But the poor people, they are all in the same boat but they divide you based on race or stuff like that. A lot of these politicians say things like “We’ve got to stop all these illegal immigrants.” I am like, “That is so easy to stop.” They are not working for other immigrants.
Has your perspective on these issues changed in the last few years?
Yes, when I realized that rich people will always be rich and the poor people are like crabs in a barrel. They are going to fight with each other, but they are really in the same boat. They want you to argue about gay marriage. They want you to argue about the war in Iraq. There is not a single person in this country in good conscience who can say the war in Iraq is going well. But then when you see someone criticize it … some other guy from the other party says he is badmouthing the troops. And I am like, “No he’s not.” We are able to disagree, and saying that the war in Iraq is not going well is not treason. Some of these guys want to try people for treason. The war in Iraq is not going well.
And of course the obligatory Obama comments:
In some quarters Barack (Obama) has been criticized for not being black enough.
Well, that’s because black people are fucked up. One of the reasons that black people are not going to be successful is because of other black people. We tell black kids that if they make good grades, they are acting white. If they speak well, we tell them that they are acting white. We have a lot of demons in our own closet–in our own family–that we have to address. But first of all, we want black men to be intelligent and articulate and things like that. That’s not acting white. That’s the way it should be.
The Starting Five covers the story:
http://thestartingfive.wordpress.com/2007/05/11/barkley-busts-out/
And the source (subscribers-only, free subscription available):
http://www.tnr.com/user/nregi.mhtml?i=w070507&s=chotiner051107
