A fool is a fool. And no matter what they do, fools always have a way of revealing themselves. In the case of former NBA star Charles Barkley the attribute of coon mentality has been evident since he became a professional basketball player.
In the wake of the aftermath of a Ferguson grand jury choosing not to indict police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown, Barkley raised the bar of outrageousness to another level in speaking out on the case as many has.
My take: Barkley is full of hot air and is just a plain, loud-mouth fool. Yes, this is my opinion. But Charles Barkley does not speak for me as a man. More importantly, Mr. Barkley does not speak for me as a black man. He does not speak for Black America. He does not speak to the consciousness of Black America. Instead, Barkley speaks to being vaudeville’s version of the dancing, laughing and clueless Negro.
Barkley is nothing more than an entertaining buffoon with the leverage of being an ex-NBA player, and now as a member of the media-to insert his voice on things that he thinks is relative to his thinking and his blind stupidity. It’s one thing to have an opinion, it’s quite another to lend your voice with graceless ignorance to matters that highlight your simple-mindedness.
But that’s Barkley in a nutshell: simple. A simple person speaking with simple ideology can be a dangerous thing. Barkley is a dangerous man. Dangerous in the way that when he speaks, mainstream media and the rest of America listens and tends to think he is the voice of Black America.
Barkley is dangerous to the forward movement and progressiveness of Black America when he ushers out ludicrous statements that mainstream media gobble up like Pac-man such as “We as black people, we got a lot of crooks” and “there’s a reason why they racially profile us at times” and “unfortunately, as I tell my white friends, we as black people, we’re never going to be successful not because of you white people but because of other black people.”
I don’t understand people like Charles Barkley. I don’t understand why Barkley goes out of his way and make it a point for all of America hear him tear down and loop African Americans into one big basket of one negative stereotype piled after another just to appease his captors.
Self-hate can also be a dangerous thing. And it seems with these recent outbursts against the black Community, Barkley may hate the fact that he has to wake up every day and look at himself in the mirror. When you hate yourself, you start disliking anything or anyone that remind you of what you look and sound like.
You never hear Barkley tear down white Americans, Hispanics or Asian Americans to uplift black folks. But when it comes to the black community, Barkley speaks with such ridicule, disgust and degradation that one may come away with the conclusion that African Americans are a bunch of shameless individuals who are looking to freeload our way through life.
And we all know that is far, far from the truth. This is yet another example why Barkley is dangerous and does not speak on behalf of Black Americans.
Barkley is an entertainer. This is what he does; he entertains people. He was an entertainer as a basketball player. Now he’s entertaining people with his mouth. Instead of using measured responses to the emotional topic of young men of color losing their lives of law enforcement, Barkley, without apology, chose to pour salt on the bleeding wounds with insensitive and callous remarks about the black community in the wake of the Ferguson grand jury decision.
This rises above Barkley speaking his mind. It’s called running with the bulls, just a pile of cow manure that Barkley drops all over the public spectrum.
Just because you have the mike does not mean you have to speak. And if you choose to do so, it should be done with clear articulation and sense of responsibility. Barkley has neither.
The problem with Barkley is that he does not know when to shut up and be still. Another issue I have with Barkley is when was the last time he actually stepped into a community like Ferguson and talk to people that look like him? The only community Barkley understands these days are the golf courses he swings his jumbo rear end on.
As he sits on his high horse now as a TNT NBA analyst, Barkley now believes he serves as judge and jury of the black community with his slap-in-the-face verbiage. That makes him dangerous. It also serves as a reminder of the clown we always have thought of him to be.
Dennis has covered and written about politics, crime, race, sports, and entertainment. Dennis currently covers the NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA, and Olympic sports. Dennis is the editor of News4usonline.com and serves as the publisher of the Compton Bulletin newspaper. He earned a journalism degree from Howard University. Email Dennis at dfreeman@news4usonline.com
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