Charles Barkley donated $1 million to an organization that helps young African Americans train for trades that will help them succeed in life. In real life, not the NBA fantasy life, which a paltry few are destined for, despite their dreams.
(Facts: 30 NBA teams, 15 players per team, 450 NBA players at any given time — total. Spread out over an age gap of 20 years, that means maybe 25 per birth year. Or one from every two states. Ouch, say the oddsmakers.)
Barkley is a realist, despite having achieved the NBA dream himself, and he worries: “I just worry about these young kids,” said Barkley on Jemele Hill’s Unbothered podcast.
Story goes that Barkley wanted some work done on his house in Alabama, and he couldn’t find any African-American skilled workers to help him. Barkley was looking to support both his domicile and his community at the same time — and yet he had trouble finding minority-owned businesses to do the work.
And it wasn’t just in Alabama (Barkley is originally from Leeds, Alabama, and maintains strong roots there) but all over the U.S. Barkley started noticing a problem long ago when he visited schools across the country — and it starts young. Kids these days — especially African American kids, he says — want to be stars and they neglect pursuing more realistic opportunities as a backup. Realistic careers like plumbers, electricians and carpenters. According to Barkley, young African American kids “think they can only be rappers or entertainers and jocks.” Barkley says he wants to help more kids keep it real. After all, he is most famously “not a role model.” Podcast below:
Latest episode of Jemele Hill Is UnBothered is available exclusively on @Spotify. My guest in this ep is Charles Barkley, who discusses D Wade’s future in television and why networks can’t find anybody like Barkley. Download @Spotify and listen FOR FREE.https://t.co/CuSCc5e0HQ pic.twitter.com/dstJQYmu3E
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) April 26, 2019
