Charles Barkley is one of the most outspoken people in sports media, so of course a TMZ camera found him and asked what he thought of Adam Jones being verbally abused by racists in Boston.
The NBA on TNT panelist spoke about the incident at Fenway Park on Monday night, when racist Red Sox fans threw peanuts and slurs at Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones.
Barkley said the incident “never should have happened” and said what he’d do if something like that ever happened around him.
Boston was bad for a couple of reasons. For one, it should never have happened. But I’m disappointed in the fans who was around those people saying those things. If I was in a crowd of people and they were mistreating anybody, I would stand up for the person that was being mistreated.
Let’s just say hypothetically, if I was with a group of black people, which I am black, if they were mistreating a white person, a Jewish person, or a Hispanic person I would put an end to that sh*t.
The TMZ interviewer asked Barkley if anything like that had ever happened to him. He said it’s happened before, but was quick not to label cities where things like that occur as inherently racist.
You know I have been called names before. I’ve been called a slur, probably three or four times. It was actually in New Jersey.
But listen, man: There’s racism everywhere. I don’t like to blanket any city. Every city has racists, but I don’t think we should ever blanket any city as ‘they’re racist.’ Racism happens everywhere. I’m from Alabama. I don’t have a leg to stand on.
A number of athletes past and present have come forward to talk about how Boston fans have treated them over the years. It’s good to see Barkley apparently isn’t among them, but expect to hear more from him about the topic of race as the month moves on: he has a TNT show about race relations set to air in a few weeks.
