Recent events have made it clear that racism remains a serious issue in the United States. In response, Charles Barkley has decided that Americans need a dialogue about race, which is why he has a new docu-series on TNT consisting of four parts. Unfortunately, there are serious problems with his approach, meaning that it is questionable whether his docu-series will prove helpful or not.
Here are five things to consider about American Race:
Charles Barkley Is an Emotional Speaker
To paraphrase his own words, Charles Barkley speaks based on his emotions before coming up with the rational explanations needed to support his statements. This is problematic because speech without forethought has rather unfortunate tendencies of putting people on the defensive, thus minimizing the chances of a productive conversation. Even worse, it does not suggest a great deal of introspection on his part, which is critical for someone who is supposed to be building bridges between different people with different viewpoints.
Charles Barkley Deserves Some Credit For Listening to Opposing Viewpoints
Charles Barkley deserves some credit for listening to opposing viewpoints. For example, he met with people in Baltimore, where he defended the police by stating that they often have to make split-second decisions because of their difficult job. In response, the mother of a man who was suffocated after being restrained at a traffic stop pointed out that it took the police between 15 to 20 minutes to kill her son, which does not fit with the defense of understandable mistakes made during split-second decisions. Unfortunately, there is a limit to how much good intentions can help.
Simplistic Questions
For people who are looking for a more than surface-level discussion on race, it might be better to look elsewhere, seeing as how there is plenty of relevant information out there for people to read and digest on their own. This is because the docu-series features a lot of surface-level questions, which can seem more than a little bit loaded in their sheer simplicity. For example, Barkley asked a Muslim woman to explain the source of terrorists if Islam was a religion of peace, which was at best a very clumsy way to phrase a question about legitimate issues.
Not a Good Interviewer
On a related note, it is clear that Barkley isn’t the best interviewer, meaning that he didn’t get as much value out of the people that he interviewed as he could have. For example, one of his interviews was with Beth Van Duyne, who is well-known for opposing efforts by Muslims to set up tribunals that would be used to mediate disputes within their own community. When she stated that she didn’t know what the tribunal was trying to do, Barkley failed to follow up on why she didn’t make an effort to find out. Furthermore, he stated that he was not alright with “separate laws,” which suggests that he didn’t have the best understanding of what mediation is supposed to do.
Four Parts Are Not Long Enough
Race is not a single issue so much as a collection of countless inter-connected issues. Even worse, none of the issues are simple and straightforward in nature, meaning that none of them can be boiled down to the basics without causing a significant loss of meaning that will prove detrimental to those who are interested in understanding them. As a result, the docu-series is just not long enough to do what it set out to do, which isn’t helped out by the fact that its leading figure is not the best-suited person for the task that has been entrusted to him.
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