Former basketball star Charles Barkley recently weighed in on an argument that has the entire nation riled up: the removal of Confederate statues.
"I'm not going to waste my time worrying about these Confederate statues. ... I'm going to keep doing great things, No. 1 in the black community because I'm black," Barkley said in an interview with Rick Karle of WBRC.
He continued: “I’m not going to waste my time worrying about a neo-Nazi who’s going to hate me no matter what.”
When asked if the best option is to leave the statues up and ignore them, Barkley answered, “I’ve always ignored them. I’m 54 years old; I’ve never thought about those statues a day in my life. I think if you ask most black people, to be honest, they haven’t thought a day in their life about those stupid statues.”
Barkley has weighed in before on the Confederate statue and flag debate. In 2004, he said he was on his way to a NASCAR race and turned around when he saw 10 Confederate flags.
Barkley was a star player with the Philadelphia 76ers and then with the Phoenix Suns, where he earned the NBA Most Valuable Player award.
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