Charles Barkley has plenty to say about race relations, and next year he’ll have a forum to do so.
Not that he needs it.
Barkley, the affable NBA Hall of Famer and TV sports analyst will host a new show, “The Race Card” set to air next year on TNT, according to a story from The Associated Press.
The show will feature Barkley taking on the topic of race relations in the United States, and, from the sound of it, it will be typical straight-forward Barkely.
"I just want to do a positive dialogue because I'm sick of arguing over race all the time," Barkley to The AP. "Like, I'm very aware that racism does exist, it always has and probably always will, but the media does a really poor job. There's more good than bad, but the bad pops off the newspaper and on television. And like I said, the truth is somewhere in the middle."
In the AP interview, Barkley said he respects what some athletes today are doing in the name of race relations, but he’s not sure they are doing enough.
"It goes back to the (Colin) Kaepernick thing," he said. "I said, you do what you want to do, you're a grown man. But I challenge all these guys, what are you actually doing in the black community to help our people?"
Kaepernick, quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers, has been protesting the state of race relations in the United States by refusing to stand during the playing of the National Anthem prior to NFL games.
Barkley says he hopes the show will shine a light on some of the problems the country faces.
"What I'm trying to do with the show is, all the racial BS is somewhere in the middle. It's not black and white ... like everything is not all what it seems," Barkley said. "I'm just trying to open up a positive dialogue. That's all I'm trying to do."
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