his mom is exactly the same way. I'm watching a special on Barkley on ESPN right now and she's as outspoken as he is. They're really going in deep into his background and the way he was raised in Leeds Alabama. A segregated area 80% White and 14% Black, Literally separated by train tracks, where he says you had to learn how to work with white people and can't do anything to exacerbate the situation or make it worse. He lived in the projects, single parent household and was obviously poor. His mom said thank god for the white folks who gave her jobs and allowed her to feed her children. I personally don't like his take on things. His views are those of someone who has benefited from his relationships with whites but looks down on blacks to a large degree. Very much like a Bill Cosby take on things. That's fine but he doesn't recognize the systemic disadvantages that still exist. He's a generous man who gives to the black community but at the same time I think his words can do a lot of damage.

I don't share his attitude coming from New York I can tell you that down here in the deep south where I am there is a very strong strain among some blacks that is very much a slave mentality. They don't see it but if you come from outside the community you see it. I stood there and watched some men code switch when a white businessman came in the room and suddenly they were talking different. Suddenly it was "yes boss" and just a totally different vibe altogether. You have to see it to understand just what i'm saying. It's not really that subtle but you have to understand that they never lived in any other way with whites down here. My local church wasn't allowed to desegregate until 1978!!! So culturally things are still far behind in the deep south.

So basically i'm saying that Barkley is a product of his environment. Not all southern blacks are like him but there is a subset that is very much like him and worse. There are towns I can't go in down here to this very day!!! I went just a few miles south of my town to shop for some Travertine Tiles and got lost. I stopped at a gas station to ask for directions and their was a man standing outside. I asked him for help and he never acknowledged me. Not a word. A woman came out of the store and I tried again and she did the sam thing. I was shocked. But I knew then where I was. That's hard to understand for some in NY or other areas but it's like that in places down here. Barkley is a man that doesn't realize his mind is caged. As loud and brash as he is, he's also conditioned to the Southern dynamic from days past that still exists in pockets today.