Frank Beckmann's Fab Five comments

I think all of this is hypocritical BS.  First of all, I like Jalen Rose, but his comments were stupid.  If he was saying what he felt like as a 18-19 year old kid, fine.  They were stupid thoughts then, too, but at least I can understand a young man not being very wise.  Were they racist?  I would say they were more built on not understanding people who do not grow up like you grew up.  He was essentially saying that the more affluent players like Grant Hill were somehow less black than he was.  Stupid comments built on youth and ignorance.  Beckmann calling him racist for it was likewise stupid.  He, of course, is not 18 and should know better.  His comments about not liking the fab five, though, could be based on their arrogance and feeling that they were more important than the university they represented.  The University made money on the backs of the poor starving kid, blah blah blah, they still cheated (Webber the most obviously, but it is a little arrogant to think that none of them knew about him or were receiving anything themselves).  Anyone who works is exploited by their company.  My company makes a lot more off of my work than they pay me.  College athletes more or less have a part time job which pays them 15 to 20 thousand dollars a year.  Not too bad.  It is not any different than what we all slam the OSU kids for.  Play by the rules or go pro.  Regardless, his comments were no more racist than Rose's were, and the quick jump to him being an old white racist by many of those here is ridiculous.  Basically, many people are slamming a guy they don't like for slamming something he doesn't like.  It is the same old "you don't think like me, ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!" attitude that is too prevelant today - from liberals and conservatives, btw.  RR guys and Carr guys, too.  Everything is too black and white.  Why can't this guy just not like the fab five and leave it at that?      

I don't normally like to slam people for their opinions but you really have to be a moron if you think that Beckmann is "amateurish" or just not very good at radio play-by-play.  I don't know about that aOSU announcer and don't really care because I've heard a lot of radio play-by-play voices and Beckmann's has to be up there as one of the best as far as excitement goes.  Also he's done this for almost thirty years

I have to agree with you on this one. I've always thought he was overrated. If this is what gets him fired so they can bring in someone better then it will be worth it.

who I remember growing up listening to. That being said, that Buckeye guy blows him away.

Keels used to do U-M games in the 80's, if I'm not mistaken.

You know what they say: when people want to keep a thought to themselves, they put it on Facebook.

his comments make me suspect he is well aware of the hate thrown at those kids when they were there.

amirite!?

Those who play the "racist" card first are fair game.

I didn't have huge problems with his comments until he got to the part about racism.  On behalf of Whitey, it is very, very dicey territory to start calling a bunch of poor urban black 19-year-old kids racist.

I don't agree with Beckmann's politics AT ALL, and his columns in the DetNews are really poorly written and reasoned.

But  the man is entilted to his views. I don't see how this should affect his standing as a play-by-play man.

I don't think calling someone a racist necessarily makes you a racist.  However, I'm sure there have been racists who in fact called others racist, so it's not logically impossible.

I think a rich old white suburban dude like Beckmann calling a poor young black kid from Detroit "racist" doesn't make him (Beckmann) racist. It makes him a fucking idiot who doesn't know how to deploy the English language properly.

I think the more subtly bigoted thing about Beckmann's comments was the whole "antithesis" argument. Much of that was code language for uncouth inner city negroes. Which, to me, fine. If you're a fat old rich white dude from the suburbs, you probably do find poor black kids from Detroit abhorrent. I personally will stand with the latter and tell Beckmann to STFU.

I'm not sure that I am following beckman's logic in calling the fab five racist....

However, old white men judging young black men, and praising our current white dominated basketball team while hoping that we never have an all black basketball team again seems very racist...so do comments by other old white men saying "I'm so glad that you said this" and "finally someone said it," and other things like that.

His comments were clearly alluding to somethimg more than what was written, and I think what the OP assumes that something is a general annimostity toward outgoing african american players that became bigger than Michigan that aren't going to behave as old white men would want them to. In my opinion, he definitely comes across as racist, though I am sure that he doesn't believe that he is. 

I was in the band in 2004 when Bo came and talked to us. He had just come from a George W. Bush rally, where he was one of the speakers. That's proof that he was a tough guy that he could survive AA as a conservative. I absolutely love Frank Beckmann as he is part of the Michigan tradition for me. I grew up listening to him calling Michigan games. My question is, why are we all obligated to love the Fab 5? I loved them at the time, but watching that documentary was more like watching Titanic for me.

i doubt your grandmother has a 50,000 watt radio station or a facebook page, nor does she represent a university with a $5 billion endowment that has recently been through some issues with affirmative action.

Or his right to express them. I have a problem when he uses them in reference to the University, or it's players, past or present. It's a conflict of interest. Firing is silly for this action (People are always cavalier with other people's jobs), but he should be told to stop using the school to espouse his views, apologize by admitting it was inappropriate, or choice to stop affliating himself with the school (quit).



And unlike some who don't seem to want "some guy who doesn't have the same views as I do representing the University", it's not any stance in his personal life that matters to me; only how he references the school. I don't really like it when the U partakes in activism outside it's teaching mission. A university is supposed to be all views and ideas, and no one representing it should be taking sides.

Anyone who lived or grew up in SE MIchigan in the 80's or 90's had to chukle at this. I especially did after I looked up what apotheosis meant!

Yes. This.

It's funny how people refer to the Fab 5 as "just a bunch of thugs," without knowing that 4 of them graduated. In fact, I believe Jalen was on the Dean's List for pretty much all of his time at the University (I think Juwan was too, but someone can correct me on that if I'm wrong). 

From my experience speaking with people about the Fab 5, there is a general cognitive dissonance. All five men have proven to be extremely successful, intelligent, dedicated, and generous individuals, and even knowing this, a lot of people I've spoken with still view them as thugs.

Is your post a joke? 

You do realize Beckmann is an old man stating his opinion while Jalen was a young man stating his opinion? 

I don't want to pounce on you too much but you do realize freedom of speech and expression is still allowed in this country?

I find it comical that the first place people jump is race in this rather than age. It isn't surprising that an old man didn't like the Fab Five. Anyone who lived through the Fab Five era would know there were a lot of old men that didn't like the Fab Five. Why do you think they were so appealing to the younger crowd?

Frank's a smart guy, and a smart guy should have been more careful in parsing the past-tense nature of Jalen's comments.

This would be one of the great times in his career for Frank to say that he's sorry, a la Jalen and Grant Hill kissing and making up in the Op-Ed pages of the New York Times or on ESPN.

I'd like to see Beckmann do that, because first and foremost it would be the right thing and the smart thing to do.  I'd also like to see Frank do it, because he's a remarkably fine talent on the Michigan football radio network.  It would be good for the University for Frank to be more accurate, and that would not involve painting the Fab Five with a broad brush.

I'm forgiving of Beckmann because, let's remember, Jalen brought some of this on himself.  Jalen deliberately pushed his filmed comments to the edge.  It was frankly brilliant on Jalen's part, if the goal was to promote the documentary.  Jalen provoked Grant Hill, just as effectively as he apparently provoked Frank Beckmann.  If Beckmann is an old out of touch racist, what does that make Grant Hill?  Jalen may be retired as a player, but he has clearly not lost his touch as a provocateur. 

And I'm also forgiving of Beckmann, to the extent that there was some serious wrongdoing -- by Webber at least -- that badly hurt the University, that people who have been close to the Athletic Department for the past 10 years+ (like Beckmann) are all too familiar with.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C4uTEEOJlM