By threatening to punch people in the face, Charles Barkley signaled the most important demographic in the upcoming presidential election: Black voters.
Barkley, the NBA Hall of Famer who has since become “the round mound of profound,” was reacting to Donald Trump bragging about gaining popularity with Black voters based on his legal troubles, saying the proof was in T-shirts featuring a photo taken after he turned himself in to police in Georgia.
“It’s incredible,” Trump said at a South Carolina rally. “You see Black people walking around with my mug shot.”
Trump, who’s facing more than 90 felony charges in a slew of cases, compared his situation to the history of Black oppression.
“A lot of people said that’s why the Black people liked me,” Trump said, “because they had been hurt so badly and discriminated against. And they actually viewed me as being discriminated against. It’s been pretty amazing. Maybe there’s something to it?”
(And if this isn’t proof that we need critical race theory in schools, I don’t know what is.)
Barkley, Arizona’s most famous Black resident, reacted on his CNN show “King Charles” with pure disgust.
“First of all … if I see a Black person walking around with a Trump mug shot, I’m gonna punch him in the face,” Barkley said.
He wasn’t worried about the legal ramifications, apparently.
“I will bail myself out and go celebrate,” he said.
It’s funny stuff, but it also foreshadows a serious issue. Trump was speaking to the Black Conservative Federation, an acknowledgment that if he can peel off enough Black support, he’s going to have a chance to beat Joe Biden in November.
History makes the importance of the Black vote clear.
Barack Obama’s overwhelming popularity with Black voters gave him the White House twice.
Hillary Clinton’s inability to draw as much energy from Black voters gave Trump the White House once.
And Biden took the White House behind strong Black support, thanks in part to being Obama’s right hand and selecting Kamala Harris as his running mate … but also because he wasn’t Trump, who has said so many racist things over the last eight years that it’s hard to keep track.
But Biden’s support among Black voters has slipped during his term, as the far left wants him to push for reparations and other financial cushions that would help close an enormous racial wealth gap in the face of cost-of-living increases that are preventing blue-collar Black families from getting into the middle class.
Is it enough to create an opportunity for Trump?
The guy who said there were “good people on both sides” of a racist rally in Charlottesville, Va.? The guy who called Black NFL players “sons of b----es” for kneeling to protest police brutality?
The guy who called a bunch of African nations “s---hole countries”?
Put another way, how much bail money will Charles Barkley need to save up between now and November?
If Barkley himself is any indicator, the Biden campaign should be fine.
Barkley could easily have been one of the Black conservatives in the Columbus, S.C., crowd.
He once said he wanted to run for governor of Alabama as a Republican.
(His grandmother tried to protest, saying “Republicans are for rich people!” Barkley, the story goes, replied, saying, “Grandmama, I am rich!”)
But in 2020, Barkley explained on The Athletic’s Hoops Adjacent podcast how and why his thinking has evolved.
“Bill Russell called me one time,” Barkley said.
Russell, an NBA Hall of Famer and civil rights pioneer, had seen Barkley on television moaning about how much he pays in taxes.
“I say, ‘Hey, Mr. Russell, how you doing?’ He says, ‘Shut the hell up and listen to me … You went to public school?’
“I said, ‘Yes, sir, I went to public school.’
“He said, ‘Did the cops ever come to your neighborhood?’
“I said, ‘Yeah, they came a lot.’
Hallelujah!Black churches are growing again
“He said, ‘You had good teachers, didn’t you?’
“I said, ‘Oh, I had great teachers.’
“He said, ‘Oh, now your Black a-- is making a lot of money and you want to complain about taxes? … Be happy you’re making a lot of money, and they can tax you a lot. There was a time you were poor, when the cops came to your neighborhood, when you went to public school, somebody else was paying those taxes, too.”
Barkley thought about it a moment and said, “You know what, Mr. Russell. You’re right.”
If Black conservatives have a similar epiphany, that they have a responsibility to help those less fortunate, Trump won’t stand a chance.
Especially not if the disgraced former president keeps minimizing the experience of racism by comparing it to being accused of dozens of crimes, including fraud, sexual abuse, jeopardizing national security and criminal conspiracy to steal the 2020 election.
“If I was at that conference, I would have got up and walked out,” Barkley said. “That was an insult to all Black people.”
Well, maybe not all Black people. Apparently, there are still some of us out there wearing Trump shirts.
The more Black people Charles Barkley has to punch, the better it is for the Trumpublican Party this fall.
Reach Moore at gmoore@azcentral.com or 602-444-2236. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @SayingMoore.
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