I May Be Wrong But I Doubt It - Charles Barkley [20]
The thing I want to do is pick the battles I want to fight. I don’t want to start World War III every time I’m angry about something. I was willing to fight the role model battle. I’m willing to be in there fighting the battle against racism because it’s so important. But I have to pick the battles that are important to me. We as black people waste time fighting some battles that aren’t worthy, or not as important as some others.
I get asked all the time about the different state flags, like the state flag of South Carolina. I think it should be taken down or changed, so as not to offend anybody. But I’m not going to waste my weekends picketing. The best thing we can do isn’t picketing and it isn’t spending so much time confronting the people who want to keep the flag. The best thing would be to piss them off by being successful and doing well in education and business. That’s something we have a better chance of controlling. I’m more concerned with there still being only a handful of people of color who serve as the head of public relations for professional sports teams, or at the league level. There’s only a sprinkling of black and Hispanic people involved in the industry of sports other than playing. And obviously, there are only a few people of color involved in ownership. I’m more concerned with owning the means of production in certain industries.
I’m not saying I don’t understand why people are upset with state flags that include the Confederate flag. It’s just that those people are not going to change what they feel in their hearts because they take the flag down. I understand the power of symbols, and if I had anything on my house that seriously offended someone, I’d take it down if for no other reason than common courtesy.
I guess everybody picks and chooses certain battles. One of the ones I won’t back away from is the freedom to choose who you want to be with. When you marry outside of your race, as my wife and I did, you get such garbage from people of both races. People say, “Well, your kids will suffer.” Sadly, that’s true. Of course they only suffer because people put their prejudices off on the kids. So yeah, kids suffer because adults are hateful. But even with that, it’s not like my daughter is conflicted about everything in her life every day. She doesn’t wake up in the morning and wonder, “Should I study George Washington or Booker T. Washington?” That’s what I tell people. It’s not a daily struggle. Her life isn’t one big tug-of-war. The only time kids have trouble, whether or not they are the products of interracial marriages, is when people put ignorant shit in their heads.
People should be able to go out and date whoever they want to and it’s nobody’s damn business. And that’s that. I think anybody who disagrees with that basic freedom to associate with, befriend and date whoever you want to is full of shit and has some kind of agenda they need to seriously think about.
Life in the Public Eye
I’ve had plenty of people tell me it appears I enjoy being famous. But I’ve always disagreed with that. It’s that I enjoy meeting people. There are only two ways to go about life if you are famous: enjoy this damn life or be miserable. People say, “Do you enjoy being a celebrity?” And I say, “Not really.” When I was playing I wish I could have played basketball and made a lot of money, period.
When you’re in public life, no matter who you are, you’re either going to learn how to enjoy it, especially meeting people, or be a miserable jerk. A lot of famous people go through their whole lives not wanting to be bothered, with bodyguards hanging around all the time, or staying to themselves. I’ve always thought that wasn’t going to be me. It didn’t seem to be an enjoyable way to go about it. Like Jack Nicholson says, this is as good as it gets. So if you’re successful at something and you become famous for it, that’s as good as it gets. So why walk around moping all the time? That trips