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Michael Wilbon: Grant Hill And Jalen Rose “Ain’t All That Different”

Grant Hill’s New York Times op-ed column in response to comments Jalen Rose made in ESPN’s Fab Five documentary that black players at Duke were “Uncle Toms” has inspired as much conversation as the documentary itself.

Yesterday on First Take, Chris Broussard offered an impassioned opinion in which he said the exchange between Rose and Hill was an example of a large problem in the black community–the idea that being educated means selling out your people. Following that, Pardon The Interruption co-host  Michael Wilbon echoed Broussard’s statements in a balanced, well-written column.

Like Broussard, Wilbon discussed (as he did on PTI this week)  the harm the word “Uncle Tom” can do. He used strong language–ESPN put an Editor’s Note that some readers might find the language offensive–to make his point that both the documentary and Op-Ed piece inspired conversation that takes place every day in the black community.

“(The conversation) sure as hell didn’t start with basketball players; it started with the resentment that field niggas had for house niggas, and there will be no sanitizing of the term here because the feelings were even more raw than the language. It’s a conversation most, though not all, white folks are unfamiliar with …”

He argues that a definition of “Blackness” dangerously promotes the idea that “athletic achievement is ‘black’ and academic achievement is ‘white.’”

Wilbon and Broussard both mentioned that Rose’s comments were more about the way he felt when he was in college at Michigan than how he feels now. Wilbon is careful to point out that Rose resented what Hill had–a good education, a strong family life and an overall more “privileged” life–rather than Hill himself.

While praising Rose for his character and accomplishments, he still backs up Hill’s argument that Rose produced the documentary, and could have made it evident that he feels differently about Hill and other black players at Duke now than he did back then. Wilbon goes on to make the point that despite their vastly different upbringings, the two men share more common traits than they do differences.

“(Rose’s) passions and curiosities, ironically, are in many cases similar to Hill’s. They both have an affinity for storytelling, which is why both have worked as executive producers before the age of 40. It’s why both have worked in television and why both are good at it. They are both driven by education in general, specifically increasing the opportunities of poor children who don’t ordinarily have them.”

In his Op-Ed piece, Hill uses much of his space to stand up for his parents, who worked hard to create a better life for him–something which Wilbon says Rose is doing right now, not only for his children, but for poor urban kids in Detroit (Rose founded a charter school to help get inner city kids a good education).

He praises both men for their virtues, and in the end says that generating “this kind of discussion is exactly what a documentarian is supposed to do.

And Rose certainly was successful with the Fab Five documentary. In addition to the record-breaking ratings and critical acclaim it received, he produced a film that transcended sports. But as Broussard and Wilbon suggested, maybe next time Rose will learn to be more careful with the words he chooses.