LeBron James and Gisele Bundchen VOGUE Cover Causes Racial Stir…And No One Understands Why???
What the…
This ain’t no coincidence. The enlistment pic was sent to me by a prominent writer soon after the issue hit the stands. It’s the same damn pic. The weapon of choice is different and Gisele isn’t topless, but you get the idea. Annie Leibovitz definitely has some explaining to do for this bullcrap–Mizzo
Once again a national publication has taken the liberty of pissing off the Black community. The April issue of VOGUE focuses on NBA superstar LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers and supermodel Gisele Bundchen, girlfriend of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. The cover of the magazine draws comparison to the King Kong/Fay Wray pose – James is shown baring his teeth, clutching the waist of Bunchen with his shoulders hunched in a gorilla-like pose. This recent development opens the door for James, who is arguably the most popular player in the NBA to address this issue and others concerning race in sports and how Blacks – specifically how Black men are viewed.
VOGUE magazine has been in existence for 113 years, in that time there have been a grand total of four Blacks to grace its cover – LeBron James being the first Black male.
It seems to me that the editors at VOGUE have driven home a point that they have been trying to make for decades.
- The Black male is a threatening entity – savage like at times.
- The Black secretly desires White women
- Our instincts and emotions are primal, even in today’s world.
There are other photos in the publication that could have been placed on the cover but were not.
LeBron finds himself in the same seat Tiger Woods was in a couple of months ago. When do you say, “Hey, this is wrong.” or “This may be offensive to some people.” or just say flat out, “I’m not taking a photo with that pose.” He has that power and I’m sure that if he would’ve objected to the photo it would not have been taken. Sometimes I wonder if Black Athletes know how much power they really have. They don’t have to take photos that depict them as slaves (Charles Barkley) a cross-dresser (Ricky Williams) or a skit that has them as some White woman’s boy toy (Terrell Owens/Nicolette Sheridan).
I’m sure that there are those out there that are just as outraged because a Black man is seen on the cover clutching a White woman as I am for him being depicted as a savage.
I would like to think that James’ position would be more solid than the one taken by Woods who has stated that he is multi-racial and not specifically Black. James is by all means Black, he is from the inner city and is familiar with the struggles in the Black community, he has the street credibility, not to mention the adulation of a generation that seem to relate to him and is looked upon as the face of the NBA.
After reading James’ comments on the cover controversy, I’m not too encouraged.
“Everything my name is on is going to be criticized in a good way or a bad way. Who cares what anyone says.” LeBron inexplicably stated.
While the MSM and White America commend James for taking the “high road” we’re left on the same dusty trail looking for someone to come along and lead.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not looking for LeBron James or any other athlete to become a Ghetto Messiah, all I’m asking is to read between the lines when you’re asked to do anything, consider us as you would your own family. We’ve got you’re back, just don’t forget us. They can care less how you appear to them. To VOGUE, it’s all about selling magazines, to the Cavaliers it’s about selling tickets, at NIKE, it’s about selling sneakers.
I’m more concerned about you selling your soul.
James’ handlers weren’t doing their job here, and I don’t know if James actually thought of the imagery and the similarities beforehand.
What we have here is pure Conveyor Belt, accelerated since LeBron went straight to the pros — and certain parts of history aren’t taught.
I was telling Mizzo yesterday that James’ people were at fault as well for not seeing this. Good points.
The history lessons need to be taught and driven home.
LeBron James has one thing on his mind: money, money, money and of course, more money. Everyone needs to pa-leeze stop acting as if he gives a damn about anything outside of his own personal universe. And pa-lease dont tell me that Lebron is unaware of his ‘star power’- even IF the editors had said “do your best King-Kong impression” James would have still cashed the check. He’s proven himself to be capable of one thing, shooting hoops. Barking up the Lebron tree for some brotherly love just aint gonna happen my friend.
Paaaaaleezzzze lol Aren’t you Mexican now?
Not looking for any love from LeBron- I don’t know where I gave you that impression but that wasn’t my intention for this piece. It was to point out for one that unless athletes, actors and whoever else don’t take a stand on how they’re depicted in anything that people will have them looking any kind of way.
I just want Black athletes to realize who they are know their history and avoid situations like this.
I’m not looking for brotherly love – if anything I’m trying to show some by pointing things like this out.
Lebron and his handlers were played by Vogue. Annie Leibowitz and Anna Wintour went smooth Harlem Globetrotters on King James…and while he was laughing with them, he naively didn’t realize he was being laughed AT. They knew what they were doing…unfortunately Lebron and his handlers did not. Trust, King James and his folk were told “this is such an artful piece, it depicts your fearlessness, your strength….”…..and some other crap they spewed all the while knowing EXACTLY what the reaction would be. They were aiming for controversy all along.
No one is asking Lebron to speak out on injustice at the Democatic National Convention or lead a march on Washington to protest police brutality – damn….just don’t let yourself be depicted as the stereotypical Mandingo beast. How hard is that? You’re the first black male to be on the cover of this magazine….THE definitive fashion magazine of the freaking world and you’re on it looking like an extra from Birth of A Nation…….damn.
What she said…
Thanks Miranda, that was all I was trying to say. Read between the lines, think things through, and don’t be so quick to look for the dotted line.
I think the most controversy James was expecting was being on the cover with a White female. There is no way LeBron can look at that photo and the King Kong poster and not see a correlation.
TBR – I don’t know if the man looked at a King Kong poster and it registered. It obviously doesn’t matter that much to him, and I’m not surprised — who’s going to teach him? The decline of quality teaching in schools since I graduated high school (and that’s not even a decade ago) has increased, so he’s just the latest of a generation of kids that don’t know about what came before.
(Yeah, I know we say “the parents”, but sometimes that ish just doesn’t happen.)
True.
Agreed with the point that these public figures need to have some… get their MIND RITE even… but i agree with STN that LeBron was shuffled along the way so quickly, he doesn’t even think twice about the larger scale of his depiction.
I can’t say 100% that everyone in the process “knew what they were doing” like Miranda said, though…………………………….. but there are a lot of reasons people could be offended by that cover, and the folks who put it together knew anywhere between one to all of them.
Why is it that women tend to be shown as dominated by males? Why is the jock (no matter the color) shown as a “brute” as if he only knows women and hoops? How did Spalding manage to score an ad-spot by pure luck?
“luck” meaning the right spin of a bouncing ball…
That conveyor belt theory is 100% legitimate and is a large part of the issue.
[...] yesterday, whether it portrayed the King Kong imagery that has been written about by both D-Wil and the Starting Five folks, as well as ESPN’s Jemele Hill. One of my friends sent me Jason Whitlock’s [...]
It’s all about understanding the history behind the controversy. People on the outside wouldn’t understand the situation at all, however they feel the right to tell African Americans to “let it go.”
David Beckham would not have been posed on the front of Vogue with Tyra Banks, Beyonce or any other black woman for that matter. Hell he’d probably be all decked out in a freshly taliored suit. But when it’s Lebron, this is what we get….
It’s all about understanding your history people…
LeBron should have posed on the cover with a nice suit and tie with a very rich cigar sticking out of his mouth…..with AKeys or someone just as bad. That would have been hot. But nooo Vogue noooo. I can’t wait to speak to LeBron next week.
Mizzo – Be careful, Ben Wallace has his back now. Might be like one of those old wrestling roll-ons when the 4 Horsemen jump Dusty Rhodes in the lockerroom or something. Take Moses or one of those cats in there with you. Don’t wanna hear, “Big Ben stepped on my typing hand.”
Mizzo – you’re a poet. If you weren’t my hero before (and I think you might have been), you sure are now.
[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2059/2199992647_48ea5dc8af.jpg?v=0[/img]
Yeah that would be crazy. I’ll turn my glasses around when I speak to Bron Bron.
Carolyn! Sup? How you doin? Nice poem. Are you reciting it to me?
TBR wrote the piece…I can’t claim it.
That’s the thing about heroes. Like the wind. Poof – they’re gone.
Put em on straight if it gets too loud and Wallace gets up! Don’t think he’d hit a brotha w/glasses. Better yet – throw Eskin in front of him.
LoL that would be crazy seeing Eskin all in there like Van Gundy on Zo back in the day.
Hey I can still be ya hero baby girl. Thanks for stoppin’ by
Not to worry. Ben doesn’t even have his own back at the moment. Saw the Cavs game at the Q last night. No Boobie, No Ben, No Fun.
That’s right he’s out. Just cut him from my fantasy team. C. Kaman and M. Camby made Ben expendable.
Does anyone else think Kaman looks like a serial killer?
Either that or someone that shoot up a Starbucks.
Someone that might shoot up a Starbucks. My bad.
Tim,
Believe me, there are pre-shoot meetings to go over “concepts” and post-shoot meetings to narrow down the selection before Anna Wintour gives the final yay or nay…and every person in the room can sniff out the slightest bit of edge, controversy, as far from normal, teensy weensy bit of outlandishness for these cover pics.
This is the FIRST African-american male on the cover and its purely coincidental that he was chosen for this honor with a best bodies pictorial with Gisele?? Gisele is the “security blanket” to put him on the cover in the first place. That’s A. B – Vogue is a fashion magazine, period. Is there anything to support the unasked notion that the cover was always gonna be Lebron? For some reason, I sense an unspoken belief by everyone that LeBron walked in the door as the cover boy – I would bet he didn’t, he just walked OUT the cover boy after they saw that picture and knew the conversation it would generate.
Sadly Lebron is too young and too clueless to truly understand why this could be offensive, so he gets more of a pass than Tiger who had Earl to guide him. But this cover offends me mainly because Vogue and everyone else know damn well that Serena has a better body than Gisele
Damn right!
I will support the Serena statement 100%
Check out the latest issue of ESPN The Mag, you won’t be disappointed.
[...] Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. The cover of the magazine draws comparison to the King … credit : [...]
Mizzo, here’s a sightly different take, maybe somewhat twisted:
http://blackfivesblog.com/?p=367
[...] Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. The cover of the magazine draws comparison to the King … credit : [...]
Mental note – read BFB every day instead of just lifting their material for stories.
Claude – posted Well-dressed Basketball Player on BallHype. Everyone should see this.
I just read that column, very well done.
OMG,
The dress is even similar. Stop Playin!
Strength to your wisdom… Power to its direction!
All points well made, no argument, but I see the same pose and expression (without the woman) after dunks in every NBA game. All a photog would have to say to LeBron is “Do that thing you do after a dunk,” and she’d have this photo.
Isn’t it also worth thinking about what this pose means in relation to the posturing of athletes during games? I’d be more offended by the Vogue cover if both people were not doing what they do all the time in other contexts.
On the other hand, context is everything.
Hall context my Black ass. This is proof of racism. Face it. There’s no plausible denial here.
All that about posing after a dunk is a bunch of bull. The dress, the facial expression..”lady liberty” shying away…wtf….even down to the weapon of choice.
Ive just sat here for the last hour putting together a long and eloquent expression of my thoughts on this topic, but screw that. Someone needs to get in touch with the Vogue creative team and find out WTF they where thinking, the balls of these cats.
You all need to relax on Lebron though, we can say youth lack of better education, or knowledge of history, etc, but I guarantee you that you show him the cover and this poster and his answer will be different. He will definitely acknowledge that he was used, putting his faith in the “professionals” to put together a ‘strong’ and ‘fearless’ depiction of him and they used him. While he thought they where laughing with him all the while they where laughing at him.
In these ‘modern times’ we hope for the best but more often than not we are still let down.
[...] reading to much into things. That was until earlier on this morning when I came across a post at The Starting Five, which had the Vogue Cover followed by what seems to be a poster of the King Kong character (see [...]
KING james……………….KING kong
calm down
Jemal what’s your point?
So, if you’re a very, very young man with millions who has just been ETERNALLY PIMPED by a 113 year-old magazine, a 58 year-old pasty editor Anna Wintour and a 58 year-old photographer Annie Leibovitz, how do you save face?
There is NO WAY you can stick to the story about “personal criticism” because you really don’t even get hate mail. Most people love you — and this isn’t about you – personally. It’s about you collectively – the GROUP You – the WE – the “They” “Them” “Others.” This didn’t have to be LeBron James…it simply had to be someone with a woeful lack of self-knowledge. Fiddy Cent would have done just fine. In fact, he’s done just fine with his “Educated Savage” plantation walk for Vitamin Water. His perp walk from MC to maestro was intended to be as absurd’s as Charles Barkley’s “uncivilized” deodorant commercial two decades ago.
Barkley is still a buffoon/coon ignant ass reactionary caricature. He’s styled himself as a “new Black man” with no information but high volume, multiple opinions and a platform for dissemination of irrelevant distractions. LeBron could travel that path – but it seems to be inconsistent with his demeanor. He needs an exit strategy that allows him to recognize and frame this masterful pimp game that has been run down on him by two white women. The lesson to be learned is really simple.
“Child, you have no permanent friends – only permanent interests…and it is not in your interest to ever, ever, ever look like an APE in an international publication…now finish your supper and go to your room.”
If you know someone that can get close enough to clarify this thing – he should be made to recognize that he’s been a pawn in grown folks business – and he should stay out of grown folks business until he’s grown. He’s not grown or wise or protected. He is in a perilous position – and he need look no farther than the buffoon with the gambling habit and the empty brain for what can happen when one’s abilities of body and not aligned to one’s abilities of mind.
Pull his coat if you can. And snatch Fiddy while you’re at it.
And if you’re not quite clear what the problem is with Barkley – just ponder for a minute that a multimillionaire from a destitute Black community has pissed away great sums of loot on bullshit – while that destitute community remains destitute — and he spends the bulk of his time as a comic relief on a TV show.
This is not how grown men spend their time or money. This is how persons who have been redirected from the truest aims of their own spirits spend their time and money. It surely is a tragic thing – $40M slaves – right down the chains.
Well said brotha. Where the hell you been? Gimme a shout.
Will do. Temple 4 and 5 are almost 10 months old. Doin’ the daddy thang. Baby girl decided to crawl today after spending the last week walking (with a little help, of course). She’ll be working on her speed – so it’s gonna be ON around here.