In Defense of Black Duke

Nope, I didn’t watch the Fab Five documentary. I’m sure there was some good reality TV on that captured my attention. But like most of you, I have heard the commentary about the whole thing. And since we like to take an issue and beat it into the ground, here’s my two cents.

Today my bff’s initiated an email conversation about the subject with me. They wanted to see how we each felt about the Jalen Rose comment vs Grant Hill response situation. Being a Dukie for life (eternally bleeding Duke Blue), I jumped behind my fellow alum. I understood where he was coming from but didn’t really elaborate. One responded that he thought the response was a bit much given that Jalen Rose was expressing his feelings (albeit poorly) as a teenager. That’s all good and fine buuuutttttt...

This issue extends beyond the basketball court. As a Duke alum, as a Black Duke alum, I feel that this message spans past irrational teenage feelings. It moves off of the court and onto the quad. What Jalen said is not something that many black students at Duke hadn’t heard before. Not that we’ve been called Uncle Toms, rather we’ve been accused of “talking white” and “not being black enough”. Many of us were chastised for being smart. Not all of us are from two parent homes in affluent neighborhoods, though many are. Some of us are from single parent homes in the hood where we were pushed to do better and move beyond our surroundings. Does this make us any less “black” for not choosing a school that’s around the way?

The reality is that Duke attracts and accepts certain types of students. As does Columbia, Howard, Harvard, Spellman, and the like. There's not a lot of inner city kids at Duke who didn't have the drive and someone's foot up their but pushing them to be better than their surroundings. Yes, many of us recognize that Coach K recruits uppity negroes a certain type of player because they fit well within his system. That is his choice. But to call these players Uncle Toms simply because they were recruited to fit within this system based on their backgrounds is irresponsible on Jalen (and anyone else’s) part. Doing so places the blame on the person (recruit) for their upbringing rather than acknowledging that we all come from different backgrounds and fulfill different niches in the world. It labels people based on how they played the hand they were dealt. Life isn’t fair. We all don’t come from privileged backgrounds and honestly, we don’t all have the same opportunities to make it out. But our differences are what makes the world spin. And though we as a country like to pick ourselves a part in every way possible to prove that we are somehow better than the next, we should remember that this sort of thinking hasn’t led to any productive results historically.