Lebron James on the Vogue Cover

Not sure if this is NBA Talk or General Talk, but this is a pretty interesting side topic at the moment in the NBA. I've seen many claims on TV that the cover's racist and I don't see how this is the case at all.

It doesn't look racist to me.

The whole thing has been typical media bullshit. The fact that this is still in the news is completely ridiculous.

Only people in the US would see something racist in that cover.

Only people in the US would see something racist in that cover.

Correction: Only people in the US who are minorities would see something racist in that cover

Obviously it implies that black people are scary animals that want to steal away white women. That's just what I got out of it.

and the King Kong reference and the obvious moral problems with comparing black people to anything monkey-like.

If you see "racism" when you see something, what does it say about you that you instantly think something racist...

Media outcry about "racism" is usually just an opportunity for media types to grandstand about how "enlightened" they are. Or to reveal their actual racism.

Correction: Only people in the US who are caught up in identifying people by "race" would see something racist in that cover

Fixed.

It reminds me of the complaints to the FCC that in this scene from The Simpsons' Season 12 episode Skinner's Sense of Snow, Skinner in the dodgeball bag intentionally resembles a flaccid penis.



Even using some imagination, it's a huge stretch.

Likewise, unless there's something painfully obvious I'm missing, I don't see any racism in that cover.

I don't think it's racist in purest intent but I did find something odd about it the first time i saw it....like it looked like an image i've seen before.




...whether or not it was deliberate but whoever asked them to take that pose was obviously going for that look...you can't deny that.

After what we "minorities" have been through up until the 1960's can you blame us for being paranoid?

I love Ricky Gervais' stand-up when he projects that photo.

To paraphrase:

"He made headlines by grabbing a starlet of the time - Fay Wray.

She's pretty big."

Correction: Only people in the US who are minorities would see something racist in that cover

You mean white people? White people are minorities nowadays.

Anyhoo, I totally did not see a King Kong reference till it was pointed out. My first time seeing that cover yesterday in a grocery store was, damn, he's big.

i gotta admit i also did not see anything related to king kong til it was pointed out, infact i still dont really see it. its my opinion that people are just looking for reasons to throw racism into the publics face whenever they can, hey behind sex and violence what sells better than racism(it might even out sell violence)?

now dont get me wrong, i know there are a shit load of racist people in the world. there always has been and always will be. i dont think it right and would love to see it go away but it never will, not with the media constantly throwing it at us on a daily basis. hell just today i read about a judge who throw all the white people out of his court room so he could give a speech to all the black defendants that were coming into his court room. the judge said the message was better sent without white people around. i say who fucking cares what color the defendants were, if you wanna give a speech on how to better your life then give it. plenty of white defendants out there too that are wasteing thier lives

I don't see why LeBron would do it if it had anything to do with racism....... and if so, he's dumb.

The King Kong thing is actually the first thing I thought of when I saw the picture.

It's not racist to compare LeBron James to King Kong or some beast, at least in this case... The comparation is easily to understand, knowing the way LeBron plays. He's a "beast".

And again, it isn't racism, it just a reference to a popular character.

I don't think it's racist in purest intent but I did find something odd about it the first time i saw it....like it looked like an image i've seen before.




...whether or not it was deliberate but whoever asked them to take that pose was obviously going for that look...you can't deny that.

After what we "minorities" have been through up until the 1960's can you blame us for being paranoid?

Best post in this thread. Throughout U.S. history, black Americans have been portrayed in a negative light(especially by Hollywood). We've been sambos, mammies, pickaninies, coons, savages, apes, pimps, hustlers, hoes and nowadays, thugs(unfortunately, some of us feed into this, but that's another thread). That's why we may seem overly sensitive to shit like this. It's rare you see a black person grace the cover of "mainstream" magazines like Vogue, and we want to make sure it's done right. It may be hard for foreigners to understand this.

First thing I thought of was success.

He's young...
He's rich...
He's successful...
And to top it off he's got a blond trophy.

Why couldn't they put him in a suit or something classy instead of making him look like some sweaty ogre grabbing a skinny white girl? It's just a bad picture all round.

you got a good point PDub. I can see how it could work as the girl being his "trophy".

also, the photographer is famed Vanity Fair/Rolling Stone photographer Annie Leibovitz. She's famous for taking controversial pictures of celebrities, including the ones with Demi moore nude/pregnant & painted. But if you look at her other works with black people, I could only find one so far with Whoopi Goldberg in a bathtub full of milk.

http://loser.miniwini.com/wp/images/Annie.Leibovitz.09.jpg

however, Leibovitz (which to me sounds like a Jewish name of some sorts), is also a lesbian so I'd hate to think a lesbian would be so cold-hearted and try to frame black people in this manner, since lesbians are discriminated against quite as often as black people. I will try to find more of her pictures of black celebrities and edit this later.

for the record, i still see King Kong, but that could be my tendency to side with black people over white people.


here's the whole cover.
analyzing the whole cover, (and not the small piece that was posted earlier) I'd say it's a little less "racist" if the whole point of the photo was to try to get people to read the article about top bodies of athletes and models. but then again, why does Lebron have to be dressed in black with a basketball like that's all black people are good for or something? but then again, that picture was taken with Lebron trying to have fun and have a good time during the photoshoot, so he probably doesn't think much of it. but to think how many pictures they take and to pick this one out of the 50-100+ that were probably taken is completely up to the editors of Vogue Magazine. Lebron is the third man (and the first black man) to grace the cover of Vogue so let's take a look at the Richard Gere and George Clooney covers:

It's difficult not to be politically incorrect these days.

black player and white woman: racist.
white player with muscles and tattoos and white woman: sexist. Stereotype of a strong beast-like man getting his hands on a white innocent woman.

Second, some could argue blacks are excluded as only whites are on the cover.

Black player, black woman: same as above but the other way round. Whites could feel excluded and it could have a touch of racism towards whites.

White player, black woman: racist. Strong white man controlling weak black woman. Has a touch of the days of imperalism, colonies, slaves.

------

Just to avoid misunderstandings: I personally judge people after their characters, regardless of their color, gender, race etc.

Moreover, language is not racist. Pictures are not racist as such, only people's views and perceptions are. There never will be a 100% politically correct picture as there will always be people that see something incorrect.

Traffict signs are incorrect if they show a man...but not a woman etc etc...

Equality in terms of race and gender is essential and I fully support it!
But things have become too complicated and developped in the wrong direction.

Examples (please note that I live in Austria):

-> feminists claim that traffic lights are sexist as they show a green and red man for "walk" and "don't walk". A man...but not a woman.

-> some blacks bullying whites on the bus, accussing them of being racist and Nazis if they don't offer their seats to them. All blacks have to sit, whites have to stand because otherwise the whites are racists.

Things have gone in the wrong direction, sadly. It's not about equality anymore but rather racism vs. counter-racism. And two extremes of always poor victims vs. always bad offenders on both sides:

Whites may feel as innocent victims being robbed by bad, always criminal and drug-dealing blacks.

Blacks may feel as poor victims being mistreated by bad, imperialst and racist whites that want to reestablish slavery.

Both views are wrong.

It's a general problem of racism, misunderstandings and prejudices. In Austria we do not have many blacks but a certain % of foreigners from Turkey, former Yugoslawia etc...a discussion between left- and right-winged parties is constantly going on.

Right-winged parties claim that "those foreigners" all steal and take away jobs, do drugs, spit on Austrian society, are 100% "evil".

Left-winged parties claim that they are ALL poor victims and misunderstood and we have to fully support them and they are all nice and good.

Both views are wrong. Sadly, politics are mostly about extremes. The "truth" often lies somewhere in the middle.

Good Darko, this is a fucking magazine cover. Everything in life may be political, but that doesn't mean you have to actively make it so. (Hehe, make it so.)

I for one, as I suspect many people, first saw "LeBron James, athletic freak and basketball god sporting his game face, along with interchangable model smiling like the dickens because her coke high just kicked in."

for the record, i still see King Kong, but that could be my tendency to side with black people over white people.

Or, it could be you're racist. After all, you apparently see King Kong when you see a large black man.

with a basketball like that's all black people are good for or something?

Yeah, it's not like he's a famous basketball player or anything.

however, Leibovitz (which to me sounds like a Jewish name of some sorts), is also a lesbian so I'd hate to think a lesbian would be so cold-hearted and try to frame black people in this manner

For Darko sakes...

Maybe instead of indentifying ourselves, and others by the groups with which we/they share physical or genetic characteristics, we could you know, identify by more complex things. Like personality, philosophies, work roles, etc.

If you see "LARGE SCARY BLACK MAN/APE HOLDING WHITE WOMAN," have you moved past physical identifiers?

Didn't see anything racist the first time I saw the cover in this thread.

Even when the King Kong comparison was made I thought of it as Lebron being a "beast" (as said before by some posters) in basketball and not as the "black man" being compared as an ape. Even if King Kong plays basketball, King Kong ain't got shit on Lebron.

I too would scream like a crazed ape if my woman is like that.

like i said, racism sells and until it stops selling(wont happen) its never gonna go away.

Let me pose the question to the people crying racism in this thread. If it was a white athlete, with a "hyped for the game" face on, then would anyone find it upsetting? I somehow doubt it. People like Barack Obama's pastor have to understand that there are some sick people in the world, but not everyone falls into that category as a white supremacist.

why does Lebron have to be dressed in black with a basketball like that's all black people are good for or something?

I find that to be a perfect example of reading too much into it, no offense. Lebron's a basketball player and an athlete who's acting pumped because that's an embodiment of his athleticism...which was being featured in the article. Just as Gisele's working the sex symbol factor of a celebrity model, which she was being featured for.