FWIW, this is the Barkley comment that aceboon's referring to:
“The only problem I had with Kenny’s, umm, open letter was, umm, I don’t think anytime something bad happens in the black community we have to talk about slavery. Listen, slavery is, uh, well, I shouldn’t say one of the worst things ever, because I don’t know anything about it other than what I read or what my grandmother told me.”
This is ignorant, and I'm not going to quibble with anybody who turns the channel when a guy like Barkley comes on; ignorance is ignorance, even when it is dressed up as self-deprecation, and as a white guy I don't re-live the trauma that comments like these ignite. I'm not saying it this way to be diplomatic, I'm saying it this way because it's the only way to say it.
Accountability spills into elitism/classism real quick, though, and if our sensibilities have arisen from sociology textbooks rather than the street, the streets become endangered by a standard that was never meant to be applied universally (incidentally, in an era where the man who does need to abide by those standards - the president - does not, that line becomes muddled). Inside the NBA is not the streets, but the way it is branded - as a return to a simpler, less regulated forum - is inextricable from it's appeal, and as a result five figure suits are re-furnished to fit the casualness of a barbershop.
These comments are fairly innocuous in that context. They would not be innocuous if a white man had said them, but that a white man might think them is wholly relevant to this discussion for the reason that there are likely an a-ton of them who agree with him. And they agree with him because their experiences - or lack thereof - actually, in the most innocent of ways, prevent them from understanding the flaws in their thinking. Charles Barkley's comments were not thoughtful or insightful, but they were natural, and if ignorance cannot see the light of day then who can it ever be captured and reformed?
I am aware that this does not answer anybody directly, but I would offer a few cautionary words to LeBron: Barkley is credible because he is likable. That, along with the fact that he was one of the greatest ever, is literally it. And if you'd allow me to play internet psychologist for a moment, I suspect that LeBron's boiling frustration derives from him often having the opposite problem. He can't figure out why he's less likable than somebody who was not only a worse player than him but also more checkered.
There's a story in there somewhere about LeBron, and how remarkable it is that he
is all those things he said he was, despite having every opportunity to act out on the injustice that has plagued his life and career...but it's not his job to tell it.
