For some reason, we're brainwashed to think if you're not a thug or an idiot, you're not black enough. If you go to school, make good grades, speak intelligent, and don't break the law, you're not a good black person.
Charles BarkleyRead
Kids are great. That's one of the best things about our business, all the kids you get to meet. It's a shame they have to grow up to be regular people and come to the games and call you names.
Interpretation
This quote highlights the joy and innocence of children, while acknowledging the bittersweet transition to adulthood.
Charles Barkley's quote reflects the unique and joyful perspective that children bring, emphasizing the wonderful interactions adults have with them in a business context. However, it also conveys a sense of nostalgia and sadness about the inevitable maturation of children into adults who can sometimes be critical or harsh, suggesting that growing up may strip away some of that innocence and joy.
In practice
In a motivational speech about the importance of nurturing our youth, I might quote Charles Barkley.
For some reason, we're brainwashed to think if you're not a thug or an idiot, you're not black enough. If you go to school, make good grades, speak intelligent, and don't break the law, you're not a good black person.
Kids are born into the situation they're born into, and obviously, they have no control over that. And we, as adults, it's up to us to take care of kids - that's part of your moral responsibility. I always tell people, 'There's two groups we should take care of - old people and young people.'
What I told [my teammates] after the game was I'm just fortunate [for] my 16 years because, this [injury] can happen every single night you go out and play... It can be over in one instant, so you should appreciate everyday.
I don't believe professional athletes should be role models. I believe parents should be role models.
I don't believe professional athletes should be role models. I believe parents should be role models.... It's not like it was when I was growing up. My mom and my grandmother told me how it was going to be. If I didn't like it, they said, Don't let the door hit you in the ass on your way out. Parents have to take better control.
I always laugh when people ask me about rebounding techniques. I've got a technique. It's called just go get the damn ball.
I'm terrified of the thought of time passing (or whatever is meant by that phrase) whether I 'do' anything or not. In a way I may believe, deep down, that doing nothing acts as a brake on 'time's - it doesn't of course. It merely adds the torment of having done nothing, when the time comes when it really doesn't matter if you've done anything or not.
So you can't dance? Not at all? Not even one step? How can you say that you've taken any trouble to live when you won't even dance?
I was eleven, then I was sixteen. Though no honors came my way, those were the lovely years.
I realized this is what God has dealt me, and I should be thankful considering all that's happened to me in my life, but MS caused the movies to stop - stop dead - and I miss it.
I used to do crazy things that people would bail me out of, and I'm just grateful that I survived. But the music got very lost; I didn't know where I was going, and I didn't really care. I was more into just having a good time, and I think it showed.
But a voice inside her whispered, There are no heroes, and she remembered what Lord Petyr had said to her, here in this very hall. 'Life is not a song, sweetling,' he'd told her, 'You may learn that one day to your sorrow.' In life, the monsters win, she told herself.
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