NBA legend and TNT analyst Charles Barkley appeared on CNBC’s Closing Bell with Maria Bartiromo Thursday afternoon and voiced his support for the 6 jurors who allowed George Zimmerman, 29, to get away with the February 26, 2012 murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.
“I agree with the verdict,” Barkley told Bartiromo. “I’m sorry that young kid got killed, but they didn’t have enough evidence to charge him.”
Though there was some “racial profiling,” in the case, Barkley said, “something happened that changed the dynamic that night.”
Read more from Mediaite.com:
[Barkley] also called out the media for not having a “pure heart” when it comes to race. “Racism is wrong in any, shape or form,” Barkley said. “A lot of black people are racist too. I think sometimes when people talk about racism, they say only white people are racist, but I think black people are too. I don’t think the media has clean hands.”
Despite Zimmerman’s “racial profiling,” in Barkley’s assessment, “Trayvon Martin, God rest his soul, he did flip the switch and start beating the hell out of Mr. Zimmerman.” He added that he “feels bad” that the trial gave “every white person and black person who is racist the platform to vent their ignorance. That’s the thing that bothered me the most. I watched this trial closely. I watched these people on television talking about it. A lot of these people have a hidden agenda. They want to have their racist views, whether they are white or black… They’re biases come out.”
If Barkley was looking to join the “Black Men Who Would Rather Criticize Black America Than Address The Systemic, Institutionalized And Pervasive Racism That Undergirds White Supremacy” Club, he’s in elite company.
President Barack Obama called Trayvon’s death a “tragedy,” but reminded us that we “are a nation of laws…and a jury has spoken.”
As previously reported by NewsOne, Bill Cosby said that racism should not be a factor in discussions on the Zimmerman verdict.
“This racial stuff goes into a whole bunch of discussion which has stuff that you can’t prove,” Cosby said in an interview Tuesday. “You can’t prove somebody is a racist unless they really come out and do the act and is found to be that.”
While this may technically true, in the words of Tracy Martin:
This would not have happened if Trayvon were white.
When viewed through the lens of that simple and powerful statement, the racism and profiling are clear. And it is difficult to understand how anyone with a sense of justice outside of the boundaries of an unjust system built on biased laws can agree with any aspect of the outcome of this case.