Charles Barkley immediately slammed the idea that Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson isn't seen as "black enough" and addressed the rift between "unintelligent" black people and their successful counterparts in a recent interview.
"For some reason we are brainwashed to think, if you're not a thug or an idiot, you're not black enough," Barkley said in an interview with CBS Philadelphia radio's "Afternoons with Anthony Gargano and Rob Ellis." "If you go to school, make good grades, speak intelligent, and don't break the law, you're not a good black person."
The former NBA star believes the success of black people isn't hindered by white people as much as it is by the criticism of fellow blacks.
"When you're black, you have to deal with so much crap in your life from other black people. It's a dirty dark secret," Barkley said.
He continued his statement with describing the difference between those in the black community, and the ongoing struggle between the haves and have-nots.
"There are a lot of black people who are unintelligent, who don't have success," Barkley said. "It's best to knock a successful black person down because they're intelligent, they speak well, they do well in school and they're successful. ... It's just typical B.S. that goes on when you're a black, man."
Barkley caused controversy last month when he publicly backed Adrian Peterson's parenting style of spanking as an acceptable discipline. The NFL running back was charged with injury to a child in Montgomery, Texas, after he allegedly beat his son with a switch earlier this summer.
The NBA commentator did not agree with the assessment that when it comes to corporal punishment on a child, "wrong is wrong, it doesn't matter where you're from," according to Jim Rome in an interview with Barkley on CBS's NFL pregame show in September.
"I don't believe that," Barkley said, "because we spank kids in the South. There's a question if Adrian Peterson went overboard, but ... we all grow up in different environments. Every black parent in my neighborhood in the South would be in trouble, or in jail, under those circumstances. "
