Charles Barkley says Trump has made racism socially acceptable with no consequences
TheGrio...
Charles Barkley said Donald Trump has made it “popular to be racist,” arguing that people who once concealed their views now face no consequences.
Charles Barkley has never required a prompt to say what he thinks, and his latest target was the president.
Appearing on “The Chris Cuomo Project,” the 63-year-old Hall of Famer argued that Donald Trump’s influence has reshaped what Americans feel permitted to say out loud. “
I think that’s one of the worst things about Trump. He’s made it popular to be racist,” Barkley said. “There’s no consequences for being racist now. It’s like a lot of people are wearing it with a badge of courage.”
Barkley said Trump “never denounces it,” adding that he should, and that the absence of any rebuke has made racism “more acceptable.”
In Barkley’s framing, the bigotry was always present, but social cost once kept it private. “You used to have to be quiet when you were racist. You don’t have to be quiet anymore,” he said, describing people who now feel confident and comfortable where they previously concealed their views.
When Cuomo pressed on how a president avoids accountability in an office built around it, Barkley pointed to Trump’s treatment of the press, citing the moment last year when the president told a female reporter to be quiet after she asked about the Epstein files.
Notably, Barkley did not confine his criticism to Republicans during the same conversation. He dismissed progressive rhetoric around policing and incarceration in blunt terms, questioning what the country would do without police or prisons and noting that most of the politicians advancing those positions have been Democrats. He has also declined to apologize for shifting his own political affiliation over the years.
He had a separate message for Black voters supporting Trump, telling Cuomo that anyone Black wearing a Trump mugshot is, in his words, a fool.
Barkley has occupied this space for decades, willing to irritate every side of a conversation and largely indifferent to the fallout. That independence has given his political commentary unusual reach, particularly among audiences who tune him out when he sounds partisan and listen when he doesn’t. He noted that he entered Trump’s first term prepared to give him a chance.
Whether the remarks reach Trump directly remains an open question. The president has historically responded to high-profile critics, and Barkley has given him ample material.