Why Charles Barkley is My Soulmate

The other night, when I had way too much coffee and was up until around 2am surfing blogs, I also caught The Tonight Show...with Charles Barkley.

There was big old Charles, goofing it up with Jay....and then he started to make sense. Charles made a very cogent point that Liberals and Conservatives, esp. those who are hosts and commentators on the various television news programs, are nothing more than rich people serving their own interests. Basically, Charles was saying that these Liberals and Conservatives were only putting on shows and not really debating the issues, because, as rich people, the true isssues of this country don't effect them.

He hates both Fox and CNN--saying, truthfully, that they are both one in the same and are there just to further the agendas of rich people, not to forward a true liberal or conservative viewpoint. (hmmm...kind of like alot of "blogs" out there that like to purport they are run by "amateurs"...but that's another issue)

Charles went on to say that race is not the big issue in this country....it's social class.

OMG! Charles, I love you!

He went on to say (if I might distill his comments) that poor whites, blacks, and hispanics have more in common than they think--and that commonality is terrible public school educations and a system that works to keep all of them down.

This, coming from a black man who has been highly successful in the system and has a great deal of money.

He's also very right.

Both Liberals and Conservatives, in their own ways, play the race card as a way of stirring up the poor against one another. It was a tactic used during the Civil War to get poor whites in the South to fight for the Plantation owners when even they were bought and traded by their own kin...and in an insidious, covert way that was just as demeaning as open slave trade.

So, let's face it, I'm right and Charles is right--the rich trade on the fears and ignorance of the poor. They pit one group against the other with polemics and rhetoric guaranteed to stir up emotion against reason. They feed them a "street culture" that glorifies their ignornace and encourages violence against themselves. They keep the race issue alive because it serves their purpose--to keep them on top. The Liberal rich love affirmative action because it keeps poor whites from advancing by saying that poor whites, because of their skin color have the exact same opportunities as rich whites (even if their family structures and educations are vastly different). The Conservatives are against affirmative action because they know that, if you have enough money, your color doesn't really matter--you are better as an ally working to keep the rabble down and maintaining the status quo than you are in helping to advance others of your "race."

(Note: it's fascinating how, when someone in a minority family gains status, all generations of a family become huge paragons of virtue--it's the old Protestant idea that states you are blessed and among the saints if you gain money and success in the temporal world, and that this is predetermined by God. What a crock of shit. But a crock of shit that works for both Liberals and Conservatives. go figure)

If a guy like Charles Barkley can see this, and has the courage to get out there and say it, there is definitley something to it. Guess Charles either has enough power to not fear any retribution, or "they" just let him get away with saying that because he's perceived as a clown.

I'm not positive of either perception...I'm not sure of the current popular opinion on Charles.

Still I find him a fascinating man. Charles is, in many ways, a warrior who has not only learned the power of brain over brawn, but also has been able to turn nasty mouthyness into playful yet socially astute banter.

Too bad Jay has such a big stake in the status quo.

Tish G.