Nick Piccone
Charles Barkley has never been a guy to beat around the bush. He’ll tell you exactly what he’s thinking, whether you agree with him or not. And that’s probably why TNT has green-lit a series that Barkley will host, titled The Race Card.
Currently an Inside the NBA analyst on the network, Barkley will go on a “personal journey to explore and understand why our country is so divided right now.”
The premiere is set for an early 2017 release.
Here’s a description from TNT:
NBA legend and Inside the NBA analyst Charles Barkley has had enough. The America that he knew has lost its way, becoming mired in partisan politics, social divides and entrenched corporate interests. Now he hopes to get to the root of the problem in the new limited-run series The Race Card. TNT has ordered six hour-long episodes of the show, with plans to launch in early 2017.
“In The Race Card, Charles Barkley wants to bust up the echo chamber mentality that so often has people retreating to corners of the like-minded, where views are reinforced and ideas are distorted into angry, unexamined groupthink conclusions. Each week, Barkley will take on the rapidly calcifying positions around today’s hot-button topics. He will seek out the sharpest and most varied viewpoints from today’s cultural leaders and tastemakers. He will then challenge and probe those ideas, even trying them out on himself.
“No idea presented on The Race Card will be left in the abstract. Barkley will put ideas on their feet, with real-world proof-of-concept tests that will engage people and expose the truth behind their closely held beliefs. In the end, Barkley will reach his own conclusions guided only by his own wits and common-sense wisdom.
“‘We as Americans never discuss the issue of race in this country and how it impacts everything in our lives until something bad happens,” Barkley said. “I see this project as a way to talk about race, class and cultural differences and challenge everyone’s status quo.'”
The concept of a divided America — as illustrated by the recent political conventions — seems to have caught Hollywood’s attention. On Saturday, the premium cable channel Epix announced a new documentary series, America Divided, that’s being produced by Norman Lear (All in the Family), Shonda Rhimes (Scandal) and Common whose stories will look at “inequality in education, housing, health care, labor, criminal justice and the political system.”