Never one to shy away from confrontation, NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley has been under fire this week, specifically with African Americans, for his recent comments regarding the Michael Brown and Eric Garner cases, as well as his opinions on race relations between police and the Black community.
An abundance of inflammatory headlines have trickled onto blogs and social media pages from Barkley’s CNN interview, including ones noting Barkley’s assertion that racial profiling is “sometimes right” and that some protesters in Ferguson, MO were “scumbags”.
I’ve followed Charles Barkley’s life and career closely for nearly 25 years, and in so doing have developed a certain understating of the way he thinks. Many people within the Black community have read these headlines or heard these quotes and have drawn the conclusion that Barkley is either an Uncle Tom, an unsuspecting pawn of the media designed to distract white people from the larger issues at hand facing Black America, a flat out imbecile or all of the above. This particularly scathing piece on Barkley was posted to Deadspin, while the Chuckster’s partner at TNT Kenny “The Jet” Smith penned a response via USA Today.
Charles Barkley is a lot of things. Beyond being brash and opinionated, he’s astonishingly fair on everything, including any and all social issues. He’s the most evenhanded public figure you’ll find in an era where celebrities swiftly bypass their publicists to take their misguided ramblings straight to the people faster you can say the word hashtag.
Sidebar: Incidentally, Barkley himself cannot be found on any social media. He says it’s for idiots.
For anyone to heavily criticize Barkley for these opinions of his on police brutality is to neglect who Charles Barkley is and what he’s always represented. Trust, this man has said plenty to piss off white people in the 30 years he’s been famous, enough to have been labeled a racist by many whites during his playing days. Steadfast in his belief this topic must be at the forefront of American consciousness, Barkley has repeatedly referred to racism “the greatest caner of my lifetime”, and even collaborated with ESPN’s Michael Wilbon on a book about racism, where Charles interviewed various public figures whom he felt had an interesting perspective on the subject such as Ice Cube, Tiger Woods and Barack Obama (long before he ever ran for president). Conversely, he’s not afraid to challenge Black people on their shortcomings.
So when Barkley called protestors in Ferguson “scumbags”, he went out of his way to mention he was only referring to the protestors looters who used this tragic incident to come up on a PS4. And when he stated, “Black people got a lot of crooks…sometimes racial profiling wrong, but sometimes it’s right,” perhaps he’s not referring to the morality surrounding it, rather that we as African-Americans are too often caught breaking the law when racially profiled, thus making it “right” or correct.
Maybe. You never really know with Barkley. Although his critics have even acknowledged this point.
One thing you can bank on though is the courage of the 11-time All-Star. The Round Mound of Rebound has consistently been one of the few Black athletes to speak publicly on race on a national scale, which he’s done since the early ’90s. Absent from those click-baiting headlines referenced above is where he tells CNN, “My grandmother taught me you judge everybody on their own individual merits. You don’t care what any other jackass has to say— you don’t put everybody together.” Though slightly coarse and not nearly as articulate, Barkley is paraphrasing Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream. Am I comparing Barkley to Dr. King? Of course not. But Charles, an Alabama native born during the heart of the Civil Rights movement, is doing his best to realize that vision. And yeah, if one truly wants to affect change and see this dream come to fruition, you’ll need to step on few toes within your own community.
“When something bad happens, everybody has a tribe mentality. Everybody wants to protect their own tribe, whether they’re right or wrong,” Barkley said.
He’s right. My wife and I have had numerous discussions about the events in Ferguson and those like it, and I’ve confessed to her that it would be difficult for me to judge any case like this through an objective lens due to my general predisposition to strongly dislike law enforcement. This predisposition stems from the vicious attacks suffered by Rodney King, Sean Bell, Oscar Grant, Eric Garner, Michael Brown and countless other unarmed Black men, which came at the hands of those entrusted to serve and protect the people— none of whom were ever brought to justice for their actions.
Sidebar: Not to mention Tamir Rice and Rumain Brisbon
Furthermore, I’ve been profiled by the police many times, as have my family and friends (my personal story can best be summed up as in roughly 15 years of driving having been stopped by the cops over 20 times, yet having received less than five citations— my brother was once stopped for sitting in a parked car in front of our house). My opinion on police officers in this country has been shaped by each of these episodes, spliced with centuries of history that saw my people blasted with fire hoses and mangled by German Shepherds, or worse. I’ve concluded they don’t like or care about me— reciprocation feels appropriate. But is it fair? Absolutely not (I never claimed to be a perfect human).
Charles has been shaking up white America for years too.
Charles Barkley is fair.
The former league MVP doubled-down on his comments during TNT’s NBA Thursday telecast last night and remarked, “People want to hear your opinion unless you disagree with them. That’s the only thing that bothers me. As a black man, if I would’ve came out and said ‘all the cops suck’, all the black people are saying, ‘I love that damn Charles Barkley.'” If you found yourself cursing Barkley after hearing the CNN interview, look yourself in the mirror and ask whether or not the previous quote is inaccurate. Tell the truth— you know he’s dead on.
Chuck then reiterated his grandmother’s teachings and closed with, “I’m going to be fair. And some people are going to agree with me and some people are gonna kiss my ass!”
I don’t agree (which would make me apart of the ass kissing crowd, I suppose), but never will I disparage an independent thinker for speaking on his or her convictions when their motive is to foster a better society. This is the same man who also once ripped the Philadelphia media for its racist tendencies when dealing with Black athletes such as himself and Randall Cunningham during his days with the 76ers.
Remember that “understanding” I claimed to have of Barkley? In this situation, his idea of “fair” differs from mine and most of Black America’s. That doesn’t make him an Uncle Tom. It makes him an American, during a critical time when Blacks are feeling as disenfranchised as they’ve been post Hurricane Katrina. You might think he’s naively justifying the actions of the boys in blue— maybe he was volunteering himself to be the catalyst for this conversation that contained a dash of personal accountability. Barkley’s bravery to voice an opinion considered unpopular amongst his own people shouldn’t automatically cast him as a pariah. You wouldn’t want somebody doing that to you.
Neither would I, even though I’m probably doing it right now.