Not an Outlier

The views of the guy who coined "alt-right" are dangerous.

Charles Barkley, The Round Mound of Rebound and former NBA superstar, sat down to interview Richard Spencer, an unrepentant leader of white supremacy who has been credited with coining the ‘Alt-Right’ label. The acerbic tongued Barkley who has never had an issue speaking his mind was caught flat-footed more than once with Spencer’s remarkably unguarded comments about race, white privilege and his desire for a white nation.

Such as this from Spencer:

"White privilege is wonderful," Spencer said to a shocked Barkley. "I want to expand and deepen white privilege. We are living at a time in which white people are losing social dominance day by day."

Spencer acted as if he wants the genie put back into the bottle.

He wants everyone but white people to go back to wherever they came from. ‘American’ white people don’t have to go anywhere because - well, basically - “we won, they lost”. They did not get into where he believes Native Americans should go.

This is not the full interview. It’s a teaser for Barkley’s show “American Race” on TNT.

But it is the most cutting exposé of where people like Richard Spencer are coming from. Where people who proudly wear the red MAGA hats are coming from. Where the Republican Party is coming from. Where the current administration is coming from.

It could not be more clear.

Richard Spencer’s ideology is Stephen Bannon’s, Stephen Miller’s, Sebastian Gorka’s and, from what I can surmise, the president’s. You may not follow politics as closely as I do but those people were or are part and parcel of the current administration. Bannon ran the president’s election campaign. Miller still creeps about the White House making draconian suggestions and rules about immigration. Gorka, once a Deputy Assistant to the president, was quoted as saying this in regards to anyone a tick left of where he stands at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC):

“They want to take your pickup truck, they want to rebuild your home, they want to take away your hamburgers. This is what Stalin dreamt about but never achieved,” he cautioned the crowd that apparently is strongly pro-hamburger.

Fifty two percent of American millennials would like to live in a socialist or communist America,” Gorka said ominously, paying particularly attention to AOC, champion of the Green New Deal ” which, Gorka warned is “a watermelon: green on the outside, deep deep red communist on the inside.”

Watch this four and a half minute clip and listen to the disdain in Richard Spencer’s voice when he admits that the country remains in the control of “white people and Jews”. He spits out the word “Jew” as if it were excrement in his mouth.

I don’t know if this interview happened before or after Charlottesville but do you remember the angry-faced white boys carrying Tiki torches and chanting, “Jews will not replace us”?

Spencer fears that in the near future, as a minority segment of the population, he will be marginalized. The looks on Barkley’s and his companion’s face when they hear Spencer bemoan the fear of being marginalized are priceless.

This interview is not to be shrugged off. And I applaud Barkley’s insistence on confronting the alt-right ideology head-on. He has this to say as to why give this man any sort of platform to spew his hate.

"I am glad we had (Spencer) on the show because I want to know who my enemies are,” Barkley said. "I give him credit for having the balls and gumption to go on television and say his thing because there are a lot of people who think like him and we don’t even know they are around. I don’t like this dude, obviously, but he doesn’t hide behind it. There are so many people in America who think like him but we don’t know who they are."

"American Race" executive producer said it was a difficult decision, but they ultimately decided it was important to face the kind of overt racism Spencer represents.

Spencer’s overt racism permeates enough of the American population that it is incendiary and that, alone, is reason to broadcast the interaction between him, Charles Barkley and civil rights lawyer Gerald Griggs.

I read once Hitler’s ideology was supported by a relatively small percentage of Germans. Yet it still took hold and nearly blew up the world.

We disregard this man’s attitude and way of thinking at our country’s peril. The fear of diversity and multiculturalism is what is driving the divisiveness and fueling everything that is happening in American politics.

We all need Barkley and Grigg’s willingness to sit across the table and look evil squarely in the face.

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While surfing around in search of more information about this Barkley/Spencer interview that randomly popped onto my newsfeed this morning, I also came across James Baldwin debating William F. Buckley in 1965. It’s 9 minutes long and worth it for the perspective.

Also, here are some Charles Barkley highlight reel dunks. If only Richard Spencer could have been one of them.