Over the last few weeks, the phrase "crabs in a barrel" has been bandied about quite a bit in articles and e-mails, in relation to Tavis Smiley/Barack Obama incident, the Tavis Smiley/Tom Joyner incident and now, the relationship between Obama and Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
 
For as long as most people can remember, crabs in a barrel has been the default metaphor for the internal barriers black people face when attempting to succeed.
 
Our universal understanding of the phrase is that every time someone fights to move beyond their circumstances, someone is always around to pull them down. Anecdotally it seems to be a powerful comparison to what real crabs appear to be doing when placed together in a tight space.
 
But the question is, are crabs (not the human kind, the real ones) actually doing what we perceive them to be doing? Is it true or is it a bad rap?
  
So let's go to the observational evidence.
 
The actual crabs in a barrel experience is something you have to see to fully appreciate. And if your idea of a great crab meal involves the terms "Dungeness," "Alaskan," "Stone," "Imitation" or puts the words "Red" and "Lobster" together, it's almost a certainty that you have never actually seen crabs in a barrel.
 
The term, as a pure anthropological reference, refers to the very specific behavior of the Blue Crab, found most reliably in Maryland's Chesapeake Bay and along the southeast coast of the US.
 
Blue crabs are sold live on waterfronts and in trucks along highways and backroads, generally by the dozen, the half bushel or the bushel. And while at the turn of the 19th century they may have been sold in actual barrels, today's bushels are really thin wooden peach baskets. Exactly how many crabs constitute a bushel is subject to change from purveyor to purveyor.
 
Bunched together in the closed basket, one row upon the other, they tend to murmur quietly without much movement. In fact, sellers often have to tap them a bit to detect whether they are still alive.
 
But once the top is removed from the basket, all hell breaks loose, though the reaction is not always immediate. Sometimes it takes a wake up call to get them going, like a douse of water or a poke with a long fork.
 
Contrary to popular belief, the crabs on top don't necessarily try to get away. More commonly they will generally use their hind legs to attempt to move into a defensive posture, simultaneously lifting their claws in expectation of an attack.
 
The safest way to grab a crab in defensive mode is from underneath and between the hind legs, out of the angle of the claws. But because the first layer of crabs has an equally aggressive layer underneath, that option usually fails.
 
The alternative requires a sturdy glove and bit of timing to grab a claw, squeeze it together and toss the crab into the pot in one swift move.
 
This is when you begin to see the reason for the analogy, because while you have a hold of one claw, it would be an easy thing for the crab to better defend itself if it used the opposite claw to to attack your hand and force you to drop it.
 
Except that the second claw has nearly always been grabbed by the crab next to it or below it. So rather than pulling crabs into the pot one by one, you wind up looking as if you're playing the game "Barrel Full of Monkeys" and holding a virtual chain of crabs. It is absolutely fascinating to watch.
 
But does that observation prove the crabs in a barrel analogy is correct? Not necessarily.

Let's go to the science.

The University of Maryland's Center for Marine Biotechnology has indeed studied the behavior of the blue crab in captivity, though their definition of captivity is a controlled breeding tank, not an open basket. According to the center, a major impediment to studying blue crab biology and behavior is their aggression. Crabs in close proximity are not only highly territorial, they are cannibalistic, and by the time the scientist get close to finding information, the crabs have destroyed one another.
 
The scientists have found, however, that the mutually destructive aggression is only curtailed when all are fed and satiated equally. If not, the hungry will prey upon the full.
 
In which case maybe Black people not so much like crabs in a barrel as much as they are like crabs in an aquarium.
 
But how and why crabs respond when locked together in an aquarium is not necessarily the reason why they act in a similar manner when faced with a common enemy -- in this case a big dude holding a beer and a can of Old Bay.
 
People who saddle simple crabs with the human frailties of jealousy and deceit tend to ignore one key point. That is, all the crabs in the basket are on their way to a screaming, twitching and probably painful death.
 
With that caveat in mind, it begs the question: Are the crabs really preventing others from breaking free or are they banding together to form a solid, impenetrable barrier akin to the Spartans when they defended Thermopylae? A tactic that says "if you attack one of us, you attack all of us and we have each other's backs no matter what." ? In which case maybe Black people are not like crabs in a barrel after all.
 
A final cautionary note about crabs in a barrel. Anyone who grew up in crab culture knows that one almost always gets away. There's always one crustacean that draws blood and fights the power, eventually clawing its way to the kitchen floor and scampering around the house in search of freedom.
 
What happens to that crab? It gets eaten first.

Eric Easter is Chief of Digital Strategy. He writes about politics, culture and technology for Ebonyjet.com.