Charles Barkley Quotes

You don't need someone destroying you when your own people are the worst messengers possible. And this is what black people in America have not come to grips with.

Ours has not been a racially democratic society for 300 years.

America is yours [Whites] today because of crime and violence.

Crime and violence follow African Americans wherever they go.

Crime rates and irresponsibility among Negroes are a fact of life which must be faced.

You’ve got a reputation and it stinks….Since Detroit is more than 80 percent Black, it can’t be the white man’s fault. It’s not what he’s doing to you. It’s what you’re not doing.

There is a racist virus in the American blood stream...

When you teach black people that they are less beautiful, less moral, less intelligent, and as a result you defer to the white supremacist status quo, you rationalize your accommodation to the status quo, you lose your fire, you become much more tied to producing foliage, what appears to be the case.

Unfortunately, as I tell my white friends, we, as black people, we're never going to be successful - not because of you white people but because of other black people. When you're black, you have to deal with so much crap in your life from other black people.

There are bad people in all walks of life, including police.

The issue with race particularly within this country is largely because of lack of dialogue.

Black Lives Matter is not just concerned with what happens in policing. The disregard, the disrespect, and the lack of dignity for black life transcends through the fabric of our society.

Systemic racism always takes a toll, whether it be by bullet or by blood clot.

The history of racial violence in our country is both omnipresent and unspoken. It is a smog that surrounds us that few will admit is there.

If I just point out the fact that black people hurt each other, too, then we can ignore the fact that other people harm black people. I think it's an irresponsible argument.

Democrats don't understand what is wrong in the black community or how to fix it. If they do, they don't care.

Black people are not a monolith. Black people have different thoughts. And sometimes people just need to hear the harsh truth - even myself. But you can't manufacture a hard truth and place it on somebody. When Kanye says slavery was a choice, that's not a harsh truth.

For most Black people there is still poverty and desperation. The Ghettos still exist, and the proportion of Blacks in prison is still much greater than Whites. Today, there is less overt racism, but the economic injustices create an "institutional racism" which exists even while more Blacks are in high places, such as Condoleeza Rice in Bush's Administration and Obama running for President.

In America there is institutional racism that we all inherit and participate in, like breathing the air in this room - and we have to become sensitive to it.

Black people cannot look to government to solve their problems.

The challenges African-Americans are facing today are rooted in the system of slavery.

I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he's African American.

If you're African American, you are forced into making different choices, in a lot of cases, than you are as a white person.

Speaking as a black person, welfare is the worst thing that's ever happened to us.

White Americans today don't know what in the world to do because when they put us behind them, that's where they made their mistake... they put us behind them, and we watched every move they made.