
<p>Basketball legend Charles Barkley – now cohost of “King Charles” on CNN – is not a fan of President Trump. ; He has made that clear in several segments of his new talk show. ; That is why he surprised folks in criticizing President Biden and Democrats on how they treat Black Americans. ; (Something I have noted for a long time.)</p>



<p>Barkley said that the reason Biden and Democrats are losing Black voters to Trump and the GOP is because “they (Democrats) only care about Black people every four years.” ; He chastised Democrats for not following through on campaign promises.</p>



<p>Barkley is not wrong. ; While Democrats have stopped seeing Blacks as slaves or inferior human beings they still have a tendency to treat Blacks as oppressed dependents and confine millions into segregated communities.</p>



<p>Democrats’ tendency to talk-the-talk, but not walk-the-walk is historic. ; Even in the darkest days of Jim Crow, when voter suppression was at its peak and lynching was the Democrats’ version of a rule-of-law &#8212; the Democratic Party’s 1940 platform said this in a plank, headed “Negros.”</p>



<p><em>“Our Negro citizens have participated actively in the economic and social advances launched by this Administration, including fair labor standards, social security benefits, health protection, work relief projects, decent housing, aid to education, and the rehabilitation of low-income farm families. We have aided more than half a million Negro youths in vocational training, education and employment. We shall continue to strive for complete legislative safeguards against discrimination in government service and benefits, and in the national defense forces. <strong>We pledge to uphold due process and the equal protection of the laws for every citizen, regardless of race, creed or color.” ;</strong></em></p>



<p>This is nothing less than outrageous hypocrisy on the part of the Democratic Party. They put this in their platform even as Democrat regimes in the south are forcing Blacks into impoverished segregated communities &#8230; poor quality education &#8230; denial of voting rights &#8230; ; low and no income &#8230; unequal justice &#8230; and the murderous rampages of law enforcement agencies and such paramilitary wing of the Democratic Party, such as the KKK. ;</p>



<p>That same hypocrisy was in full bloom in terms of the Republican 1957 and 1960 Civil Rights Acts.  ;The 1956 Democrat Platform stated:</p>



<p><em>“The Democratic Party is committed to support and advance the individual rights and liberties of all Americans. Our country is founded on the proposition that all men are created equal. This means that all citizens are equal before the law and should enjoy all political rights. They should have equal opportunities for education, for economic advancement, and for decent living conditions.”</em></p>



<p>And this.</p>



<p><em>“We are proud of the record of the Democratic Party in securing equality of treatment and opportunity in the nation&#8217;s armed forces, the Civil Service, and in all areas under Federal jurisdiction. The Democratic Party pledges itself to continue its efforts to eliminate illegal discriminations of all kinds, in relation to (1) full rights to vote, (2) full rights to engage in gainful occupations, (3) full rights to enjoy security of the person, and (4) full fights to education in all publicly supported institutions.”</em></p>



<p>These noble words were offered at a time when the Democrats in Congress were opposing and undermining the Republican civil rights bills of 1957 and 1960. ; Jim Crow still held sway in the solid Democrat southland &#8212; and Party leaders had mounted the Massive Resistance Movement against school desegregation after <em>Brown v. The Board of Education.</em></p>



<p>President Kenney has a historic reputation as a promoter of civil rights despite his votes against the civil rights legislation of 1956 and his vote – along with the racist southern Democrat delegation &#8212; to weaken the 1960 civil rights bill. ; He campaigned on civil rights – and even proposed legislation during his 1960 and 1963 campaigns. ; In both cases, Kennedy had the bills referred to the House Rules Committee headed by segregationist Congressman Howard Smith, who promised to bury them – and they were never acted upon throughout Kennedy’s years in office.</p>



<p>Even the Kennedy Presidential Library website alludes to Kennedy’s reluctance to push civil rights legislation despite his rhetoric. ; It says:</p>



<p><em>“&#8230; Kennedy&#8217;s narrow election victory and small working margin in Congress contributed to his cautious navigation of civil rights issues. He was reluctant to lose southern support for legislation on many fronts by pushing too hard on civil rights legislation.</em><em>”</em></p>



<p>Truth be known, it is unlikely that there would have been any civil rights legislation in a second Kennedy term. ; It was a case where perception was reality. ; The 1964 Civil Rights Act became law because (1) it was seen as a memorial to Kennedy’s words, if not his actions; (2) President Johnson put full support behind the legislation despite his historic congressional opposition as Senate Majority Leader; (3) the overwhelming support of the Republican Party that was key in defeating a Democrat filibuster and passing the legislation; (4) and ironically, all this was made doable by the assassination of Kennedy.</p>



<p>Barkley is not the first to suggest Democrat hypocrisy on civil rights. ; When running for President in 2003, minister/political activist/MSNBC host Al Sharpton criticized the Democratic Party for taking Black voters for granted. ; In 2022, Sharpton underscored his concern by drawing attention to Black defections to the GOP. ; He said, “As incremental as it was, Trump and the Republicans made some increases among Black male voters. ; ; We didn’t see that coming. We need to be really very careful not to ignore that.”</p>



<p>In 1964, activist Malcolm X called Blacks who voted for Democrats “political chumps.” ; He would later double down and say that Blacks who voted Democrat were traitors to their race. ; 1960s civil rights Icon Roy Innis – head of CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) – switched to the GOP in the 1980s after bitter disappointment with Democrats.</p>



<p>Hypocrisy on civil rights is in still full view today in America’s Democrat-controlled major cities, in which millions of Blacks are racially segregated and oppressed by the deprivation of education, jobs, safe housing, healthcare, equal justice, safe streets, municipal services and upward mobility. ;</p>



<p>Some see the shift of Black voters from the Democratic to the Republican Party as the beginning of a much more fundamental transformational shift. ; How far it may go can be fairly debated, but the fact that significant numbers of Black voters &#8212; enough to affect some election outcomes – are leaving the Democratic Party is an indisputable fact.</p>



<p>I close with Barkley’s words.</p>



<p><em>“They come into our neighborhoods and say, ‘We’re going to make stuff better. We’re going to do this, do this, do this,’ And then finally us Black people are like, ‘Yo man, other than our ability to dunk a basketball, all my neighborhoods are still the same, our schools are still the same.’ And that’s why I think Black people are leaving, disappointed in the Democratic Party.”</em></p>



<p>So there ‘tis.</p>

Charles Barkley tells why Blacks are switching to Trump and the GOP
