Grant Hill vs. Jalen Rose

The recent documentary aired on ESPN about the University of Michigan's "Fab Five" brought about a lot of racially critical discussions. Jalen Rose criticized former Duke player Grant Hill as being an "Uncle Tom." Rose used the term out of context however; he was critical of Hill simply because of his family's socioeconomic status. Hill grew up in an upper middle class two parent household. Rose made the assumption that Hill wasn't a "real" black person because he didn't grow up in the hood. "I hated Duke, and I hated everything Duke stood for. Schools like Duke don't recruit players like me. I felt like they only recruited black players that were Uncle Toms," Rose said. To me, it seemed as if Rose was jealous of Hill, for growing up in a family where he knew his father or for having a mother that didn't have to constantly work. I think Rose's comment was more spiteful than racist; he just used race as a means of expression. In my opinion, his comments were similar to a little boy pulling the hair of a girl he has a crush on, in a sense where his feelings about deeper issues came out in an angry and aggressive manner that completely avoided the real issue.