Morgan State: Brotherly Love Led Karim Barton To The NFL

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania --  Karim Barton’s unmistakable Jamaican accent cloaks every word as he speaks about his childhood in his homeland’s capital city of Kingston and the move to Los Angeles’ Crenshaw neighborhood in 2004, following the passing of his mother, Carol, who died from a blood clot when he was 13 years old.

“Growing up (in Kingston), I got to experience the best of both worlds,” Barton said. “We weren’t poor, but we weren’t rich. Sometimes my parents would take us up to the country where there was no TV, no cell phones and we just depended on nature. We bathed in the river, raised cattle and all that type of stuff. Growing up down there was humbling, you don’t take anything for granted because a lot of people have nothing. That just laid a foundation, so when I came here, no matter what, I still took nothing for granted.

"I moved straight from Jamaica to South Central (Los Angeles). South Central was more dangerous than Kingston – which is notorious (for crime) – because you had to worry about colors. If you wore the wrong colors, gangs would get you. It’s crazy how the negativity and cancerous thinking is continuing to take our inner city. When I first got (to South Central), my brother was living in a neighborhood off Crenshaw (Street), and he basically told me, ‘Don’t wear any red.’ That thought was crazy to me.”

The concerns about gangs and steering clear of trouble only intensified as ...

CONTINUE READING