Charles Barkley says it’s okay for him to use the N-word.
Bryant Gumbel begs to differ.
Without mentioning Sir Charles by name, Gumbel, in a taped commentary scheduled to air Tuesday night on HBO’s “Real Sports,” says no one should use the word or get a “pass” to “say the word.”
“No matter what color you are,” Gumbel said. “Not once, not ever.”
On TNT’s NBA pregame show last week, Barkley said Matt Barnes, the Clippers forward who was fined $25,000 by the NBA for using the N-word in a tweet, didn’t need to apologize to anybody.
“I’m a black man. I use the N-word,” Barkley said on TNT. “I’m going to continue using the N-word with my black friends and with my white friends.”
Clearly Gumbel doesn’t agree. “Using the N-word says a lot about you and none of it’s good,” Gumbel says. “It just advertises your ignorance.”
Gumbel positioned his comments as a set of guidelines “gleaned from 40 years in locker rooms and 65 years of being black.”
“Being young is not an excuse. The word’s use as a weapon to define, demean and destroy millions of people should never be forgotten,” Gumbel said. “If you need help remembering, check out the new film ‘12 Years a Slave’ and you will never view the N-Word the same way again.”
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