Source: Cliff Hawkins / Getty
Charles Barkley is walking back a threat he jokingly made regarding Black Trump supporters and how punchable their faces are.
During a recent episode of Barkley’s show with Gayle King on CNN, the former NBA power forward responded to Donald Trump relying on racist stereotypes and fake solidarity with Black people to woo Black voters during an appearance at the Black Conservative Federation Gala in South Carolina (which unsurprisingly had a white AF audience).
"If I see a Black person walking around with a Trump mug shot, I’m gonna punch him in the face."
– Charles Barkley
(h/t @awfulannouncing )
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) March 4, 2024
During the speech, Trump, in his usual delusional fashion, claimed Black people are walking around in t-shirts with images of his mugshot, which he got after being indicted on RICO charges for alleged election interference in Georgia. Trump also claimed, “Black people like me, because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against, and they actually viewed me as I’m being discriminated against.” He said this in reference to his own legal woes, which, obviously, have nothing to do with racial discrimination, and are rich coming from the orangey-white nationalist who spearheaded the propaganda-reliant attack on critical race theory, Black Lives Matter and DEI.
“If I see a Black person walking around with a Trump mug shot, I’m gonna punch him in the face,” Barkley told King.
Now, the second Barkley said this, we all should have known it would only be a matter of time before he had to make another statement dialing it back. According to USA Today, video clips of Barkley’s remarks got hundreds of views, which means he likely came under fire because folks were more offended by what he said than they were by a demonstrably racist white man who has such little respect for “the Blacks” that he will perform white supremacy right in our faces then turn around and cite anti-Black injustice when it’s convenient for his political campaign.
“Obviously I’m not gonna go around punching random strangers in the face,” Barkley said on his show Wednesday in an attempt to clarify his remarks. Still, he made it clear that he is not walking back his contempt for Trump or the sunken place soldiers who support him.
“When Donald Trump compares his plight with that of the Black person, that is what I had a problem with,” Barkley went on to say. “Now, I do wanna say this. I want to make it perfectly clear… If you’re a Black person and you’re wearing a Donald Trump mugshot, you are a freaking idiot.”
“Idiot” is actually too kind a word to use here. “Sambo Blackey-lackey bowing to their MAGA massa'” is far more appropriate.