How many know what he meant when he said it's like "crabs in a barrel".
Many people love steamed Chesapeake Blue Crabs. It can be fascinating to see the Chesapeake Watermen harvest their crab pots.
They put the crabs from the crab pots into a barrel or more correctly, a bushel basket. Look closely and you notice they don’t secure lids on the baskets but none of the crabs escape.
The reason is that as soon as one of the crabs manage to claw their way to the top and freedom the other crabs pull them back into the basket.
Having lived in the Philly area for nine years, I know what he meant.
I heard the metaphor explained several times while I lived there. Once, it was while staring at a bushel basket of blue crabs (the first time I’d ever seen such a thing) at the home of a friend who was African-American.