It's been announced that Charles Barkley will be the host of a new show on TNT called The Race Card beginning in early 2017. This comes on the heels of the NBA Hall of Famer's doubling down on his previous criticisms of the black community.

On Sunday, TNT released the following statement:

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" …

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.

Back in July, Barkley said that even though there are no perfect cops, that's no justification to shoot them, adding that the black community needs cops. He also noted the double standard in how there's never any national outrage when blacks kill other blacks. Barkley said change in the black community starts with respect towards one another and towards police, as well. 

"We've got to do better as black people," he said.

After making those comments, Barkley received a barrage of complaints that he was too privileged to really understand the black community, causing him to go on the defensive weeks later:

"I told them to kiss my ass… [because] we just can’t as black people, every time something goes wrong, say it’s the cops’ fault. We have done some damage to our own neighborhood, and we’ve got to do better in that aspect… 

"There’s no right or wrong answer. That’s the one thing about being black, black people only like you when you say what they want you to say. But I’ve been in that game for a long time, so that doesn’t faze me. I’m a big boy. I can handle the heat."

Although the timing of this announcement is a bit curious so close to his "controversial" remarks, it sounds like TNT is going to allow their star to draw conclusions on his own with no outside agenda:

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.

That remains to be seen.