Charles Barkley caused a stir Tuesday with comments to CNN on the riots in Ferguson following the death of teenager Michael Brown. Barkley, who had previously referred to looters in the town as “scumbags,“ told CNN on the topic of police brutality: “There is a reason that they racially profile us in the way they do.”
Kenny Smith responds to Charles Barkley’s comments on Ferguson
The co-workers have differing opinions on race relations in the United States.
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Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
Barkley’s comments did not sit well with Kenny Smith, his co-worker on TNT’s Inside on NBA. In an open letter published at For the Win, Smith deconstructed Barkley’s comments and offered his own opinion on what’s happening in Ferguson:
The body of work that our Black Civil Rights leaders put in by planning, executing and activating does not justify you being in the conversation. While your body of work on the court very few compare to nor should be mentioned when you are giving your expert analysis. Again, I respect that you have an opinion on Ferguson. And here’s mine.
The question must be asked: Why is there so much distrust in the police and the legal system from the African American community? Without manifesting what the effects of slavery still have today, Dec 1st still marks only 59 years since Rosa Parks sat on that memorable bus. Many of our parents and grandparents have lived through those times and have passed those stories on to all of us. Those civil rights changes were at one time the law! They were not illegal.
Read the letter in its entirety. Barkley and Smith are scheduled to appear on air together Thursday night on TNT before the network’s Thursday night double-header.
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