Charles Barkley on racism, double standard: 'They always come to us' / News - Basketnews.com

Charles Barkley claims only adults are racist and racism is learned behavior: "For some reason, adults always screw up everything. How ironic is that?"

Credit: AFP – Scanpix Credit AFP – Scanpix

Basketball Hall of Famer Charles Barkley touched on racial questions in the U.S. in his recent public appearances.

Charles Barkley

Position:SFAge:60Height:198 cmWeight:113 kgBirth place:United States of AmericaProfileNewsStatistics

NBA legend said it's unfair that Black and White athletes are not asked the same questions when it comes to issues about race.

"One thing that frustrates me -- and we are all Black athletes just for the record -- because anytime something happens racially, they come to us. I'm pretty sure White reporters didn't run up on Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers, 'What do you think?' It's a really unfair double standard," Barkley saidon CBS 60 Minutes.

"We can't solve all the issues of the Black community or in Black America, in general. Should we help? 100%. But every time something happened, they come to us like we got all the answers. And we do not have all the answers. It's really unfair. They never ask White athletes the same questions," the current TNT analyst added.

Following the TV show,Jon Wertheim of Sports Illustrated published an interview with Barkley, where the 60-year-old discussed various topics. Among them was growing up in a segregated South,1960s Alabama.

Barkley describes himself as a child of the Civil Rights Movement.

"They were not," Barkley responded when asked if people were happy to see him on his first day of school. "But not the kids. Some of the parents. I was too young and too stupid to know exactly what was going on. But there was a gentleman named Mr. Allen. He took me and the two other kids to integrate into the school.

There were no buses. We had to get driven to the school. And the kids were fabulous. The teachers were fabulous. There were some parents who obviously didn't want us to be there."

Barkley said hedidn't feel racism from his classmates.

"No, at all. Kids aren't racist; adults are racist," he underlined. "And nobody's born racist. I make sure I clarify that all the time. There's no such thing as a racist kid. No kid. When you see kids, when you visit schools or you pass by a school, you see white and Black kids playing together. They're not racist. You learn racism.

This is a learned behavior. You put two kids together; they gonna play and live happily ever after. Only adults. For some reason, adults always screw up everything. How ironic is that?"

Barkley also noted that the separation between Black and White people existed in his later stage of life ('80s), too.

"It did not seem weird to me because it had been that way my entire life."

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