This was not the time to pretend that both sides are guilty of racial politics.
Charles Barkley found occasion to talk about the world at large during CBS’ coverage of college basketball, and we’re worse off for it.
Barkley has long been a charismatic figure in the sports world, and one that is hard to read. Decades ago he infamously declared, “I am not a role model,” and yet here he is, continuing to share his thoughts on broad topics while showing that he’s also not anything nearing an expert — or even a person who has given any of this deep thought.
I’m going to share this video with the necessary preface from former NFL receiver Torrey Smith, because he correctly dismantles Barkley’s weird theory that the racial divide in America is stoked by politicians as a way of retaining power:
“Yeah, but the one thing I took out of that piece was, man, I think most white people and Black people are great people. I really believe that in my heart. But I think our system is set up for our politicians, whether they’re Republicans or Democrats, are designed to make us not like each other so they can keep their grasp of money and power. They divide and conquer. I truly believe in my heart that most white people and Black people are awesome people. But we are so stupid following our politicians, whether they are Republicans or Democrats. And their only job is, Hey let’s make these people not like each other. We don’t live in their neighborhoods. We all got money. Let’s make the whites and Blacks not like each other. Let’s make rich people and poor people not like each other. Let’s scramble the middle class. I truly believe that in my heart.”
Barkley uttered these words during the same week when Republican lawmakers passed a bill so clearly meant to disenfranchise Black voters in Georgia that Major League Baseball was convinced to move its All-Star Game.
Seriously. Read the above sentence again. A league made of rich, generally conservative owners — who make some of their money through sponsorships from corporations that, again, generally favor Republican economic platforms — decided that actual legislation passed by one party in Georgia warranted the dramatic step of relocating a mid-summer festival that is a huge showcase for the league.
That’s a monumental step, and it’s happening because the Republican party is continuing to try to limit access to voting for one race (this Savannah Morning News piece offers an exhaustive look at the history of suppressing the Black vote in Georgia.)
Perhaps Barkley’s contention is that President Joe Biden, by calling the new law “an atrocity,” was … uh, just stirring things up to keep the masses riled so he can stay president? That doesn’t make any sense at all.
Biden was clearly fighting for the voters who helped make him president, which is exactly what a politician should do.
Barkley’s bar-stool level wisdom might pass as something you nod your head at after a few too many whiskeys, since you’re tired and hoping the guy who keeps talking might finally stay quiet if you appear to agree, but it has no place being elevated into the national discourse.
Whether or not most people, Black or white, are “great people” is immaterial, because we exist in a system that has favored the latter, larger group since before the country even became a country. America has been shaped by institutionalized racism; whether or not to reckon with that fact has become a political litmus test, but let’s not pretend like it’s all some ploy by the admittedly too-clubby political class to cause us to misdirect our anger. There are real ramifications here.
Republicans in Georgia responded to their state electing Biden and then two Democratic senators not by changing their philosophies and plans so as to persuade more Black voters but instead by seeking to silence those voters.
During his speech Barkley said, “we are so stupid following our politicians,” but that’s an atrocious thing to say to those who’ve followed Stacey Abrams in Georgia as she fights for their rights to have a say in decisions that impact their lives.
You can tell Barkley feels righteous trying to pretend there’s some middle ground to be found here. There’s not. Pretending an amorphous group of evil people is manipulating the masses does nothing to address real issues. It disconnects Americans from the work of their government further, exacerbating the problem Barkley is supposedly addressing.
It’d be best to not get analysis of these issues from that boisterous guy we like on the basketball studio show. This drab sort of interjection makes all politics feel far-off and nefarious, when most of it is nearby and monotonous (yet meaningful.)
Barkley has every right to share his opinions but there’s hardly any substance here, and a glance at which outlets and pundits were quickest to share this take lets you know that this bell rang loudest with a particular subset that seeks to use culture-war talking points as a way of disengaging voters from a closer look at policies and outcomes.
After all, dividing Americans is the way elections are won. It’s just a matter of which issues you choose to emphasize in your argument — unless you decide you can’t win on that front and resort instead to limiting who even has a vote in the first place.
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