Found this in the bookstore last week. This is former NBA star Charles Barkley's second book. Barkley pulls content from interviews he did with Bill Clinton, Jesse Jackson, Tiger Woods, Morgan Freeman, and many others. Here are some excerpts from the publisher's overview:
The thing about race, Charles Barkley says, is we talk about it only when something bad happens and tempers are high, and so all we do is shout at one another across a chasm that's wide and getting wider. The rest of the time we try to pretend that the chasm isn't there.... Racism has just gone underground: Sure, celebrities like him get the white-glove treatment, but in the meantime, we're living in a country that's growing steadily more racially segregated. If you're white, what are the odds you live or work with a significant number of black people? The odds are low and getting lower. When news of the Kobe Bryant case broke, 70 percent of whites polled thought he did it; 70 percent of blacks polled thought he was innocent. What's that about?, Charles Barkley wants to know. Until we learn to see into one another's minds and hearts a little more and, crucially, to laugh with one another, we're just going to keep living the lie that racism has gone away just because it's out of plain sight.
Ask for it at your local library (save trees), or get it online from Barnes and Noble.
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
Barkley was on NPR's Talk of the Nation today. A caller asked him about his politial plans. He was very critical of politics in general, and seemed to indicate that he was happier doing the talk show circuit than he would be in political office where he'd have to "argue all day." He criticized both parties, but said that he voted for John Kerry, and went on to say that he thought the Republican party had a pattern of discriminating against poor people. He also showed an aversion to identifying with either liberal or conservative labels, saying that "only 10 percent of people in the country fall under one of those two labels."
We hope that people will become less afraid to identify themselves as progressive. It's understandable that many people are afraid to be categorized as liberal after the term has been dragged through the mud over the years. I still consider myself liberal, but I am even more proud to call myself progressive. Progressives are both strong and positive. I'll nominate Charles Barkley as an honorary progressive, even if he doesn't cop to it yet!
Brilliant title. Cracks me up!
hmmm