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If you haven't heard by now, LeBron James has become one of the few men, and first Black male to grace the cover of Vogue magazine. In the cover shot, King James is posing with supermodel Gisele Bundchen clutching her waist and giving a scowl to the camera, baring his teeth. Some folks aren't happy about the cover, including ESPN.com columnist Jemele Hill who said the cover looks too stereotypical.
"Now, maybe the point was to show the contrast between brawn and beauty, masculinity versus femininity, strength versus grace," Hill wrote in her column. "But Vogue's quest to highlight the differences between superstar athletes and supermodels only successfully reinforces the animalistic stereotypes frequently associated with black athletes. A black athlete being reduced to a savage is, sadly, nothing new. But this cover gave you the double-bonus of having LeBron and Gisele strike poses that others in the blogosphere have noted draw a striking resemblance to the racially charged image of King Kong enveloping his very fair-skinned lady love interest."
Of course, Hill is referring to the poster of the classic King Kong film from the 1930's. Some fans have said that they didn't even think of the comparison until other people brought it up, others saw the correlation right away. Is this a bad look for LeBron and Black athletes in general? TAN at AOL Fanhouse doesn't think so.
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By: PARADISJUDY on 4/19/2008 11:14PM
He's an animal on the court! I hope he is an animal int he bed too because I want to have 19 of his babies!!
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By: Lou on 4/21/2008 3:58AM
I find it ironic that this is even a topic. If Lebron had been a white man with the same stance and facial expression, the cover would not have been given a second thought.
With him being a black man it all changes and sadly it has not a thing to do with the man, but rather simply his color. Would it have been better if he just stood there with some humble expression and just went CHEESE. I suspect even if he did that sort of pose, folks would be analyzing that too and perhaps saying, "He looks too happy to have a white woman in his arms"
The fact that this is even a debate, shows how far we have to go. When we stop looking at it as a Man posing with a woman, who both are at the top of their respective profession, then we become a stereotype of the stereotypes that are imposed on us or we embrace.
I am a black man. I choose to judge myself as a Man first, then you may look at me as a black man. If you want equality in this world you have to first stop separating yourself or allowing others to separate us.
Embrace your history, change your future for the better and always walk sideways, so that you may reach forward to progress and reach back to help another along.
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By: John Kiger on 4/21/2008 8:38AM
It's all the idiots that make a big deal about things like this that turn it into something it's not. King Kong was a tale of love in case all you morons forgot, not hatred and underlying feelings for white women. Racism would dry up and blow away if stupid people would stop assuming that pictures like this were taken to show black athletes feelings for the white people.
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