NBA legend Charles Barkley has never shied away from giving his unvarnished opinion on the issues, whether sports-related or not. He spoke to sports journalist Rick Karle this week about a couple of political issues, including whether confederate statues should be removed. His response is a must-watch.
#ConfederateStatues A unique take from #CharlesBarkley pic.twitter.com/l9Dz43sLp3
— Rick Karle (@RickKarle) August 17, 2017
Barkley said:
I'm not gonna waste my time thinking about these confederate statues. That's wasted energy. You know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna keep doing great things. I'm gonna keep trying to make a difference number one in the black community, because I'm black, but I'm also gonna try to do good things in the world.
I'm not gonna waste my time screaming at a neo-Nazi who's gonna hate me no matter what, and I'm not gonna waste my time...worrying about these statues they got all over the country.
Then Karle asked him what should be done with the statues. Do we just ignore them?
I've always ignored them. Rick, I'm 54 years old. I've never thought about those statues a day in my life. I think if you ask most black people to be honest, they haven't thought a day in their life about those stupid statues.
What we as black people need to do, we need to worry about getting our education. We need to stop killing each other. We need to try to find a way to have more economic opportunity and things like that. Those things are important and significant.