‘King Charles’

Charles Barkley is both informative and entertaining when discussing basketball. Clearly, CNN assumed he’d be equally so when debating politics and social issues. Spoiler alert: CNN couldn’t have been more wrong.

I’ve watched several episodes of his show, King Charles. Suffice it to know that it came across as the most cringeworthy attempt by a sports star to host a talk show since Magic Johnson’s.

Arguably, the most interesting thing about this show is its name. Because his co-host, Gayle King, just comes across like a schoolmarm, trying in vain to get Charles to stay on topic and behave himself.

Barkley’s flagrant foul on Biden and Democrats

Recently, King Charles featured a debate on polls showing increased Black support for Trump. Charles explained why – as Gayle looked on in disapproving exasperation:

‘The reason I think the Democratic Party and Mr. Biden, President Biden, is losing black votes is they only care about black people every four years,’ Barkley proclaimed.

‘And then finally us black people are like, ‘I don’t know, man, other than my ability to dunk a basketball, all my neighbors’ hoods are still the same, our schools are still the same,” he said, ‘and that’s why I think black people are leaving disappointed [with] the Democratic Party.’

(New York Post, March 7, 2024)

Of course, even taking Charles at his word, surely it’s better that Democrats care. After all, it’s self-evident that Republicans don’t.

But listening to Charles, you’d never know that the Biden administration:

• reduced Black unemployment to a record low and closed the gap between Black and White unemployment to a record low;
• increased Black wealth by 60%, the largest in history;
• invested $4 billion in reconnecting Black communities previously cut off from economic opportunity zones, including connecting 5.5 million Black homes to high-speed internet;
• doubled the number of Black-owned businesses;
• forgave loans for thousands of Black farmers and ranchers and provided federal assistance for them to stay on their farms and keep farming;
• allocated $136 billion for student debt forgiveness and increased Pell Grants by the highest levels ever, providing unprecedented benefits for Black student borrowers;
• increased Black enrollment in Obamacare by 49%, helping more Black families gain health insurance than ever;
• addressed the scourge of gun violence in Black communities, despite NRA-vested opposition by Republicans;
  
• championed efforts to restore the voting rights for Blacks that the Trump administration systematically stripped away; and
  
• picked a Black woman as vice president, a Black as defense secretary, a Black as chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, and a Black woman as justice of the Supreme Court.

I could go on. But that short list not only counters Barkley’s ignorant assertion but answers Trump’s notoriously racist pitch to Black voters: “What the hell do you have to lose?” Too much!

And, for the record, Blacks are not “leaving disappointed with the Democratic Party” nearly as much as Whites are leaving disgusted with the Republican Party.

Barkley channeling Kanye

Indeed, the point is that only willful ignorance explains Barkley echoing the Trumpian lie that Democrats are only interested in seeing Blacks dunk basketballs. It’s eerily similar to Kanye’s infamous accusation that former President George W. Bush “doesn’t care about Black people.”

No doubt, Bush deserved criticism for the unforgivable way he handled rescue efforts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. But, if he didn’t care about Black people, Bush would not have championed PEPFAR. That’s the emergency plan for AIDS relief that has reportedly saved 25 million African lives and prevented millions more from contracting HIV. 

It’s telling that Kanye went from accusing Bush of hating Black people to hugging Trump. After all, Trump is the most racist president since the end of slavery. Yet Kanye is blithely playing his political mascot. 

More to the point, Barkley’s ignorant take on Biden and the Democrats raises this question: 

• What have Trump and the Republicans done that makes Barkley think they’re better for Blacks than Biden and the Democrats?

Frankly, it’s damning enough that Trump and the Republicans have done comparatively little for Blacks. But they have compounded their racist neglect by doing all they can to take away the civil rights of Black folks. 

Again, Bush has done more for Black Africans than any president in US history. Biden has done more for African Americans than any president since Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. 

This symmetry cannot be denied – with all due respect to Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. And it’s one Barkley would do well to read up on. Until then, to paraphrase Republican Laura Ingraham, he should shut up about politics and talk basketball.