In his response to the controversy generated by the removal of Confederate monuments as highlighted by the August 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Barkley stated, "I've never thought about those statues a day in my life. I think if you asked most black people to be honest, they ain't thought a day in their life about those stupid statues. What we as black people need to do: We need to worry about getting our education, we need to stop killing each other, we need to try to find a way to have more economic opportunity and things like that. Those things are important and significant. You know, I’m wasting time and energy I'm screaming at a neo-Nazi, or 'Man, you've got to take this statue down.'"