Charles Barkley calls Ferguson rioters ‘scumbags,’ supports grand jury decision
''Those aren't black people, those are scumbags,' Barkley said of looters who targeted businesses and police cars following a grand jury's decision not to indict officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of black teenager Michael Brown.
John Carlos tells Charles Barkley to keep his mouth shut.
John Carlos and Charles Barkley are both well-known mavericks, but only one of these former athletes ever put his life and livelihood on the line. That would be Carlos, who paid a hefty price for his raised fist and bowed head at the 1968 Olympic Games.
Tommie Smith and John Carlos (r.) raise fists and bow heads at the 1968 Olympic Games.
You want risk and commitment, you start there. Not on an Inside the NBA sound stage, where Barkley comfortably resides these days. Carlos, the bronze medalist at 200 meters in Mexico City, was blacklisted, shunned, blocked from all financial endeavors because of his black power salute alongside Tommie Smith in Mexico City. His first wife, Kim, soon left him and four years later committed suicide. Carlos, destitute, fell into a deep depression, but he came out the other side with his views intact and fire still stoked.
This week, he has been out there again, telling people that the five St. Louis Rams players who raised their arms Sunday in a brief, hands-up-don’t-shoot protest ought to be celebrated, along with the Ferguson protestors. And on Tuesday, Carlos said that Barkley should just stay quiet about all this, because he doesn’t have the credentials to be opening his mouth.
“He’s just looking for political votes down the line,” Carlos said, in a telephone interview. “If you don’t have anything good to say, you should keep your mouth shut. I don’t know where Mr. Barkley gets his reports. He’s a basketball commentator. It’s not like he’s in the legal field. He shouldn’t be saying derogatory things.”
Barkley appeared on a sports talk show in Philadelphia last week and called some of the rioting protestors “scumbags.” This, from the guy who was arrested after throwing a man through the window of an Orlando bar in 1997, shattering the glass. While nobody condones the burning and looting of businesses, whether they’re white- or black-owned, Barkley’s snap judgment on the Michael Brown shooting demonstrates a narrow sense of justice, and a lack of context.
“The true story came out from the grand jury testimony,” Barkley said. “Three or four witnesses, who were black, said exactly what the cop said. We 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.”
Other witnesses said something else about how Brown was shot at least six times. Regardless of the specifics of this case, however, the point is that young African-American males are killed by police at a rate far greater than any other demographic — 4.5 times greater, according to statistics from 1999 to 2011. That is really the lesson that must be driven home by these demonstrations, and sometimes lessons are not delivered in a pleasant, peaceful package.
“This is an ongoing thing, not just Mr. Brown, a lot of individuals of color being assassinated,” said Carlos, who wrote a book, “The John Carlos Story,” to tell his own tale. “Everybody just assumes they did something wrong. Even if they did, it’s not justifiable to kill them.”
Carlos has been trying for years to get athletes to speak out, to act out, about social inequities. He has repeatedly praised Muhammad Ali while condemning Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and black rap stars for their lack of political gumption.
“Not just athletes,” Carlos said. “Puff Daddy, Snoop (Dogg), we haven’t heard much from those individuals or our black movie stars out there. They chose to take the back seat. How many millions of dollars do you have to have in your bank account before you speak your mind?”
Now, though, Carlos is greatly encouraged by what he saw from the five Rams — who have gone unpunished, despite pleas from police organizations to penalize the mild protest.
St. Louis Rams players putting their hands up to show support for Michael Brown
“I think it’s changing right before our eyes,” Carlos said. “These men are giving voice to the voiceless. They’re doing the right thing and taking a stance. So many others might feel that way. I’m just pleased to see some more Peter Normans out there.”
Norman was the white Australian silver medalist in 1968 who stood on the same podium with Smith and Carlos, who supported them and was reprimanded by his own Olympic federation, then prevented by his own country from participating in the 1972 Summer Games.
Norman paid his toll, like Carlos.
“That whole experience didn’t take me away from who I am and what I stand for,” Carlos said.
Barkley, meanwhile, has made noise in the past about running for office, at times as a Republican and others as a Democrat. Nobody is quite certain what he stands for, except boxing out underneath the basket. . http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baske ... -1.2031204