So there's this game that media plays--find a few black people who've got a beef with something and then tar all black people with it. Typical is this Lebron/Gisele foolishness. The story in question is headlined, "Vogue Cover with Lebron stirs up controversy." The Essence:
...the image is stirring up controversy, with some commentators decrying the photo as perpetuating racial stereotypes. James strikes what some see as a gorilla-like pose, baring his teeth, with one hand dribbling a ball and the other around Bundchen’s tiny waist.
It’s an image some have likened to “King Kong” and Fay Wray.
Well yeah, if you define "some" as a writer at ESPN's website, some guy who analyzes magazines, and a woman on the street. This is the sort of thing editors publish because they know if you even whisper "racism" a bunch of white people--preconditioned to believe that blacks are always complaining--will come running. DIg the poll at the end of the story. Of course Jason Whitlock ways in with his usual illogic. Whatever. White people out there. Are you listening? Most black people could give two flying monkeys about who Vogue puts on the cover.
UPDATE: The Today Show featured this "controversy" apparently. I think this ultimately about white people's need to turn racism into a dumb debate about magazine covers, and thus quickly dismiss it. When will you Negroes get it? There is. No. Racism.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
Thank You! Thank You! Thank You! Who gives a rats ass about Vogue Magazine? I'm so tired of teh so-called media I don't know what to do. They all need a dose of STHU.
Yeah, the last time I cared about Vogue was actually Men's Vogue when Barack was on the cover. And the image itself? Not so bad. She looked like she was enjoying herself...
Whoops I forgot to link the story. Sorry ya'll. Fixing now.
I don't get the diss on Whitlock. Like most sports writers, he vacillates between brilliant and assclown with great regularity; but on this particular issue I think he's right on the money. Vogue magazine? Meh.
I do have issues with the cover. Not so much because it perhaps "perpetuates racial stereotypes" but because of Vogue's refusal to admit that the King Kong connection never crossed THEIR minds. You've got to be kidding me. Don't piss on my head and tell me that it's raining. At least give me that respect.
Meh, I just think the covers ugly and Lebron's a damn fool for letting it go down as it is. I can't get in the game of trying to decipher the subconscious of white people. As for Whitlock, this whole idea that white people are running around scared to offend black people is laughable. They don't need a "manual." Nor do they want one.
Wow, we both came away from the Whitlock piece with totally different impressions of what he was trying to say.
I thought that Whitlock was saying that the manual was primarily for "us" (Black people) so we could react to incidents and images with the proper amount of outrage. We're supposed to be outraged by the imagery on the cover of Vogue, but not the stereotypes in a Tyler Perry movie.
Hil, I'm going back to read that piece. Maybe I missed it. I actually thought he was big upping Perry.
A writer at ESPN's website, some guy who analyzes magazines, and a woman on the street... and Harry Allen:
http://harryallen.info/?p=363