On March 13th ESPN unveiled a new documentary The Fab Five. I knew who was in the Fab Five, I knew about Michigan, I knew about Chris Webber’s time out and his criminal case in 2002. The most interesting thing about this documentary was how the Fab Five was treated as hip-hop thugs.
The documentary cited several angry letters from Michigan alum among others to the players, coaches and university that were laced with racial slurs. It was amazing to see the outrage that a major university was starting five black players, and that they were seen as five thugs. Everything from the black socks to the baggy shorts to the shaved heads were categorized as hip hop culture and were slammed with racial slurs. I was absolutely stunned by the racism that came out about it. It seemed to be very out of place, this happened in the early 90s, not during the civil rights era or segregation era.
In 1992, the NBA had plenty of players like someone named Michael Jordan who has a shaved head and long shorts, which made it even more surprising.
It was a great documentary and really shed some light on the Fab Five beyond the timeout.
-Brian Kapur
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