Charles Barkley has never been shy about expressing his opinion.
Barkley recently caused a stir by referring to the people rioting and looting in Ferguson, Mo., as “scumbags.” The former NBA All-Star and current basketball analyst also said he stood by the grand jury’s decision not to indict former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson for fatally shooting an unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown.
Barkley defended his stance Tuesday in an interview with CNN’s Brooke Baldwin. The gist of Barkley’s argument was that he doesn’t think white cops are out to shoot black people because of racism.
“That’s ridiculous,” Barkley said.
Rather, Barkley believes racial profiling often is pointed to as an excuse when cops attempt to clean up neighborhoods in which there is crime.
“We as black people, we have a lot of crooks. We can’t just wait until something like (the Brown shooting) happens. We have to look at ourselves in the mirror,” Barkley told CNN of people in black communities. “There is a reason that they racially profile us in the way they do. Sometimes it is wrong, and sometimes it is right.”
