Jalen Rose Shouldn't Take Back 'Uncle Tom' Jab

In DeWayne Wickham's article, "Jalen Rose needs to take back 'Uncle Tom' jab" (written on April 2, 2011), he attacks a statement made by former University of Michican/NBA star Jalen Rose on a special ESPN documentary about the Fab Five. The Fab Five documentary tells the story of five freshmen, in which Jalen Rose was one of them, who took the University of Michigan's basketball team to two consecutive NCAA title games. Rose, an executive producer and co-narrator of the documentary, made a statement about how he felt about one of his rival teams, Duke University, at the time he played for the University of Michigan Wolverines. While reminiscing about his past experiences and feelings about Duke University's basketball team, Rose stated: "For me, Duke was personal. I hated Duke and I hated everything I felt Duke stood for. Schools like Duke didn't recruit players like me. I felt like they only recruited black players who were Uncle Toms." This statement alone sparked alot of controversy in the media, and writers and bloggers began attacking Jalen Rose's statement. One to name is DeWayne Wickham. In his article, he attacked Rose's statement by saying:

"I wish Jalen Rose hadn't said that. I wish he'd "man up" and take back the ugly thing he said about Grant Hill..."

Wickham's argument is that Jalen Rose shouldn't have made the statement at all and should take it back. He also refers to an article that Grant Hill (current NBA and former Duke University star who played against and defeated Rose's Fab Five team in the 1992 title game) published in the New York Times that responded to Rose's statement, in which Hill took defensively and attacked as well. Wickham's article goes on to acknowledge that Rose did in fact offer an explanation about his statement by saying that was how he felt about the black players who played for Duke back when he was playing in college and that is not how he feels about them today. Despite Rose's explanation of the statement, Wickham still argued that Rose's explanation was not good enough. He feels that Rose needs to admit that he was wrong to have felt that way about the Duke players in the past. So to get a better understanding of Wickham's article, here is his argument structure broken down:

- Premise #1: I wish Jalen Rose hadn't said that. I wish he'd "man up" and take back the ugly thing he said about Grant Hill.

- Premise #2: Hill, whose response to the documentary was published in The New York Times, said Rose seemed to be saying black athletes from two-parent families who went to Duke were lackeys for whites -- which is what the term "Uncle Tom" has come to mean.

- Premise #3: The document's characterization of Duke's players was "a sad and somewhat pathetic turn of events." Hill wrote.

- Conclusion: Even worse than that, it is a message to young blacks that Rose needs to not just take back, but also denounce.

DeWayne Wickham says that Jalen Rose should take back the statement that he made in the Fab Five documentary because he feels that the statement sends a negative message to young blacks and paints the wrong picture in their minds of what black people who attend/play for Duke University, or any other prestigious colleges, are. Even though Rose's statement used a harsh description for Duke's players, that is besides the point. He was speaking about how he felt in past tense, making Wickham's argument a "straw-man" fallacy for the simple fact that he mischaracterized Rose's statement and attacked it. Every word in Rose's statement is in past tense, implying that it is not his current stand. With that said, Jalen Rose shouldn't have to take back what he said because as Wickham even acknowledged in his article, Rose explained that his statement was about how he felt as a young person, not how he feels today. Therefore, Wickham's argument is in critical condition.