Redrawing Blurred Color Lines

Here is Sir Charles Barkley speaking of his people:

http://www.ijreview.com/2014/10/192471-charles-barkley-goes-brainwashed-think-youre-thug-idiot-youre-black-enough/

I agree with him. Black people are holding black people back. White people are too and there's no doubt about that if you have a brain in your head but, black people are also holding each other back in the way described by Barkley, on an up close and personal level.

In a way, isn't that human nature? There is a lot of jealousy at work in the world in most (if not all) cultures. I have noticed this about blacks but I've seen it about whites too. Heck, half our TV and movies seem to be about people (usually white) overcoming some sort of adversity, rising out of some emotional or economic ghetto, and meeting resistance along the way. Blacks do seem to make it harder for each other.

However, I've seen this with poor whites too. The street cred of jail or prison? Haven't been there and I actually have been mocked for that. I remember sitting down at lunch on a jobsite down south with about 20 other tradesmen, when somebody started a conversation about which jails had the best or worst food. Shakey O'Flinn asked me after lunch if I had felt as lost as him in that discussion. Yep, like Shakey, I had never been locked up. We sat that one out. I don't know about him but, I had been put down in other sessions for never having been in jail. In some circles it's perceived as weak. Really now. Just like with many black folks, you have to have that thug resume' going for you. I'll never forget the chubby little lesbian, Analisa Kroger, marveling to her cousin that Ferrerman had never been in jail. Like: what a pussy!

Well, Anatasia had truth issues and I have to believe that her crime resume' was as padded as her birthing resume'. She's still the only woman I've ever known who has lied about giving birth, claiming a child that wasn't hers, had sprung from her loins. She also claimed to have shot a guy in a gang fight and done (too short) time for that. It was a pretty good story but, it never happened. Story for another day there.

The gist of her crime resume' was just like ghetto kids and construction workers on break: "I'm tough. I've been locked up. Don't fuck with me!" That's what it's all about, this street cred thing. It's about advertising your bad self.

Whether it's a black neighborhood anywhere or a area like Hell's Kitchen in New York City that I'm sure was as tough as it sounds, where you grow up often dictates how you grow up. If it's a tough neighborhood, no one outside of your family is rooting for you to make it out because they long ago gave up on themselves. What makes you so fucking special?

I know that Barkley's words are already being taken out of context on the right. For some it's validation that it was black's fault all along- one of them just said so! There can be no white racism, yada, yada, yada.

Again, unless you are a brain-dead, moron, you have to realize that there has been systemic white racism towards blacks since the first slave ship hit these shores. But, blacks themselves have to accept that they haven't done a lot to disprove Barkley's observations. Russell Wilson not black enough? That sounds like your problem, not his. If you are black and critical of your peers who 'talk white' or do well in school and endeavor to be something other than a rapper, NBA baller or gangster, you are the problem.

Lyndon Johnson said: "If you can convince the lowest white man that he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket."  Too many black people are convincing each other of that, as well.