Charles Barkley: We never talk about race until something bad happens

[jtuck004]

2. Seems to be thought of more highly among the Fox crowd...

He is practicing a little trick called "Respectability Politics", pretending that what these people do in a racist society has fuck all to do with how successful they are. It's suit and tie racism by people no one would ever call a racist in their wildest dreams. Read the Wiki page on "Respectability Politics". This is nasty, backstabbing stuff.

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So yes, you can go into debt to get an education, or play college football, wear a suit and tie to work in corporate America, or serve this country in the armed forces, but so long as you are black you will be subject to racism and white supremacy. You will constantly have to answer questions about your existence and prove that you belong. And in some instances, like that of Jonathan Ferrell, you may not even be given the opportunity to explain.

What’s harmful about the line of reasoning that Lemon, Cosby, Rice, Obama and so many others champion is that they know this reality. They know racism shortens the life expectancy of black people in America. They know there’s nothing Addie Mae Collins, Carol Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Denise McNair could have done to stop that bomb from blowing up the 16th Street Baptist Church fifty years ago, the same way there’s nothing Jonathan Ferrell could have done to stop the police from tasering and shooting him.

These aren’t simply isolated instances of vicious terrorists or rogue police officers acting in malice. These are the wages of blackness in a society built on white supremacy. We pay in cold blood for a right to live in this country as second-class citizens. We didn’t set the price and certainly won’t change anytime soon, unless those who’ve benefitted for so long finally decide that enough is enough.
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Here.


One might want to take what he says with a grain of salt anyway. Barkley isn't spoken of well by some very well thought of Progressive folk anyway...

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Like Jesse Jackson when it comes to politics, Charles Barkley has been the go to guy on matters of race when it attaches itself to sports for white folks here in America. This is sad, because it speaks to the frivolous and shallow nature of the understanding of racial issues in America by the Majority population.

Charles Barkley is nothing more than a clown and a buffoon. He is a guy who subjects himself to ridicule by participating in the most vulgar display of abject coonery on a regular basis for the entertainment of his white audience.

Watching him shuck and jive with his fellow studio hosts (who are not much better) during those NBA telecasts is always painful to watch. But at least we know that he is there to shuck and jive. When he attempts to get serious and speak on matters of race it is cringe worthy and embarrassing.

Not to white folks, of course, but to any black person in America who views the issue of race as more than just a sound bite on the radio about "unintelligent" blacks bringing the rest of us down.
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Here.