These slaves ain’t loyal
5th January 2015 · 0 Comments
By Edmund W. Lewis
Editor
Is Charles Barkley sipping brown liquor again? Is he stuck on stupid or just crazy like a fox?
Those were my initial thoughts after hearing about the former NBA star’s myopic comments about slavery.
Essentially, Barkley said that U.S. slavery wasn’t that bad. Barkley made his offensive remarks after he was chided for his comments about Black people during the Ferguson protests by TNT co-host Kenny Smith.
In an open letter to Barkley, Smith pointed out the lingering efforts of slavery and Jim Crow laws have created a legacy that continue to make it difficult for Black people to trust law enforcement agencies.
“Some laws were initially made without us as equals in mind; that’s just the facts. So the thought process that it’s not for us or by us will unfortunately lead to distrust,” Smith wrote. “…Let’s not discredit that there are great police officers in all neighborhoods, but let’s not credit that we shouldn’t have doubt.”
“The only problem I have with Kenny’s open letter was I don’t think any time something (bad) happens in the Black community, we’ve got to talk about slavery,” Barkley said. “Slavery is, I shouldn’t say it’s one of the worst things ever, because I don’t know anything about it other than what I read and what my grandmother told me.
“And we as Black people, need the cops in our community. They’re not here just to ‘kill Black men.’ They’re there to protect us. We as Black people have to develop a relationship with them.”
Alabama State Sen. Hank Sanders, one of the authors of that state’s legislation creating a formal apology for slavery in 2007, said Barkley’s comments about slavery left him feeling “deep hurt and great pain.”
Sanders took Barkley, an Alabama native, to task for not understanding that the legacy of American slavery still has a debilitating impact on Blacks in the U.S., and is connected to the justice system’s failure to indict police for the killing of Black men.
“Even the U.S. Constitution designated us as three-fifths of a person,” Sanders, a 31-year veteran of the Alabama Senate, told The Montgomery Advertiser. “That’s why white terrorists, in and out of uniforms, can kill us without punishment. The legacy of being less human lingers with us today. Black lives are worth much less than white lives. Mr. Barkley, this is very, very bad.”
In a recent phone interview, Sanders said he believes Americans tend to avoid the subject of slavery and its legacy — which, he said, was its devaluation of Black life “not only by whites … but eventually, Black people began to devalue Black life. Because it affects us in all kinds of ways, we need to talk about it,” Sanders said. “Black folk need to talk about it, white folk need to talk about it, and everybody in between needs to talk about it.”
“African people were made to walk hundreds of miles in chains,” Sanders wrote. “They were often beaten, poorly fed and abused in many ways. Women and girls were routinely raped. The whole continent was ravaged and still suffers to this day. Mr. Barkley, this is very, very bad.”
None of that matters to Barkley, who knows everything and has referred to in some sickles as “the mouth of the south.”
Quite frankly, I think Sir Charles is in dire need of an old-fashioned butt-whupping, a little de-programming by a real-life “Drop Squad” or to be cut loose by TNT. Among an assortment of ex-NBA ballplayers, he has proven repeatedly that he is the weakest link.
The only time I ever witnessed a sincere, conscious reaction from Barkley was immediately after the story of former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling broke. Interestingly, Sir Charles wasn’t upset so much about the owner’s racist remarks or beliefs as he was angry about having been “played” by Sterling. who was reportedly cordial with Barkley but never really revealed how he felt about Barkley as a Black man.
Simply put, Barley appeared to be upset because Donald Sterling apparently saw him no differently than he saw other Black people. That was apparently too much to handle for Barkley, who apparently believes that he is better than the average Black person because he has been on television for years and earned millions for playing basketball.
But this is the thing: We can’t keep acting like we’re surprised when athletes and former athletes who have been pampered and allowed to pass courses without even going to class make asinine remarks.
In my mind’s eye, Barkley’s comments are every bit as harmful and offensive as those uttered by sportscaster Jimmy the Greek who lost his job after saying that Black athletes are superior to other U.S. athletes because their ancestors were “bred for strength” during slavery and color analyst (pardon the pun) Howard Cosell’s comments on “Monday Night Football” during which he said “look at the little monkey run.”
Like Cosell and Jimmy the Greek, Charles Barkley needs to lose his job. He needs to know that Black people comprise a significant portion of the NBA television audience, a contingency that will not allow anyone of any race get away with routinely disrespecting and dismissing the rich history and culture of Black people.
While TNT television producers may mean well, they must be informed that a pre-game show or halftime segment are not necessarily the best place for a symposium on race relations, no matter how well-intentioned such an effort might be.
As much as some of us love watching King James, Anthony Davis, Chris Paul and some of the NBA’s rising stars, we need to make a strong statement by letting the league know that we will not tolerate disrespect from anyone receiving a paycheck from the NBA or TNT.
TNT needs to stop paying Charles Barkley to offend, disrespect and/or embarrass Black people or anyone who understands the value of an education/
If that means missing some NBA action and picking up a book instead of watching a game, or giving up a product whose commercials air during NBA games, so be it.
Charles Barkley’s expiration date has come and gone.
That’s the bottom line.
This article originally published in the January 5, 2105 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
