Insincere #MeToo Apologies Aren’t Just a White Thing
Harvey Weinstein and R. Kelly are just two of many men — Black and White — who have wielded both intimidation and crocodile tears
Update 6/7/22: Level has a new home. You can read this article and other new articles by visiting LEVELMAN.com.
“I don’t hit women, but if I did, I would hit you.”
That’s what Charles Barkley told Axios reporter Alexi McCammond in November during a political event in Atlanta. His follow-up? Telling the journalist that she “couldn’t take a joke.” The next morning, he released an apology via Turner Sports calling his comment “inappropriate and unacceptable” while still maintaining that it had been “an attempted joke.”
Yet, it wasn’t the first offense for the NBA Hall of Famer. As the L.A. Times pointed out, Barkley went through a similar cycle nearly 30 years ago when he asked a sportswriter, “Did you see my wife jumping up and down at the end of the game? That’s because she knew I wasn’t going to beat her.” Then, too, he apologized; then, too, the apology came not from his mouth, but from his employer.
Taken together, Barkley’s remarks stand as bookends of ignominy, a stunning illustration of what American culture has allowed for far too long…
