When I heard Lebron would be appearing on the upcoming cover of Vogue, I was thinking, “Cool. Good for him.” But when I saw the cover photo, something seemed eerily familiar (it should be noted that Niketalkers all but confirmed this)…It seems as if the photographer, Leibovitz, tries to pay homage to other famous images in her work.
Is anyone else thinking King Kong? Yep, a black man portrayed as a black, rabid, uncontrolled giant gorilla–in 2008. This is utterly shameful if this is serious…
What do y’all think? On a more positive note, peep ESPN’s “Black Magic.” Awesome stuff!
March 18th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Jesse Washington says:
I totally agree. Bron looks like a gorilla. Not a good look at all.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:09 am
Justin Solomon says:
I second that thought he looks awful and angry. Would have been better if he was just chilling and enjoying himself. Lebron is supposed to be marketable to many different people, not sure even the clientele of vogue is feeling this.
March 19th, 2008 at 1:23 am
Bobbito Garcia a.k.a. Kool Bob Love says:
justin-
the clientele of Vogue would probably never notice. if you look at their history, you’ll seldom ever see a black model or personality grace their cover. their ideal of beauty is not the worldly one that we may have, so it’s not surprising that they would position Lebron like this. what we should do is write the magazine to express our feelings instead of discussing it here . . .
March 19th, 2008 at 10:36 am
staceylite says:
I think you guys are being overly sensitive with this one. James looks great and Giselle looks playful with him . Its just a photo shoot please don’t turn this into a race thing because it will take away from King James shine. People really donot notice (the king kong thing) , unless you bring it to their attention.
March 19th, 2008 at 11:03 am
Saku 39 says:
So Obama delivers a speech addressing racism in the US and now we get this?
March 19th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Candice says:
I cringed the first time I saw it, rolled my eyes the second time. When I heard he was doing Vogue, I hoped for the best, but expected the worst. Considering Vogue usually has nothing to do with anything or anyone of color, it was interesting to see that the one time they do, they’d have a black man portrayed in that manner, conjuring up all kinds of imagery, few of it positive. If there were some type of balance in their portrayals, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. But since there isn’t…
March 19th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Sean Couch says:
Very perceptive observation. Covers are indicative of the feelings of the ones who run the magazine. The King Kong angel is a literary as well as a visual “masterpiece” in our society that is treasured by the majority.
I personally think LeBron is a beast on the court. The cover says “perfect fit” and “shape issues” as prominent lines. i think it’s telling bron bron and others like him to get one of those for a wife? for a girl?
The King Kong angle is wack, but he makes money so the cover to me is telling others like him to grab that…
March 19th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
illest says:
wow…….wonderful observation. she obviously wanted to copy the kingkong cover. its eeriely similar.
March 19th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Logan Light says:
I didn’t think gorilla when I saw it… I thought stupid. It’s a dumb look for Bron - what when he can get stupid fresh in a suit… it’s vogue for goodness sake. With that said, Bron agreed to it didn’t he? His publicity dude agreed to it. If that’s the case, I don’t see a problem.
March 19th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
bobby stew says:
When I first saw this pic, before reading this article, I thought the same thing. This is terrible. I wonder if Brn realized this at the time?
March 19th, 2008 at 6:23 pm
Jon DeJesus says:
I agree with everybody about this not being a good look for bronny. 1st off, you rarely see lebron portraying himself like he is on the cover. He is always smiling and laughing and seems to be having a good time. They should of had smooth lebron on the cover, that would of been funny. But overall, i dont think many people that read vogue will really think of it has king kong.
March 19th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
J. Drama says:
Don’t you think that with LBJ’s being worth 100’s of million’s of dollars that his numerous PR people would have stopped this cover from going public if they felt there was a problem(I’m assuming that during their meeting’s someone would’ve seen this)? Also don’t get me wrong he looks whack as hell on a cover of a fashion magazine screaming and flexing, but if you don’t over ANALYZE things it’s the SHAPE issue and LBJ is a flat out beast. Comparing Obama giving a speech on racism and this is over-dramatizing to say the least.
March 19th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Bobbito Garcia a.k.a. Kool Bob Love says:
j drama-
pr people love problems. it only helps sell product in the end. think of the nba banning jordan 1s at first. negative, but nike made it a positive on their side.
sean-
lebron doesn’t get paid to be on covers. it’s promotional. of course his product sells because of it so he gets it on the back end, but not from vogue, from nike.
March 20th, 2008 at 7:28 am
Utes Fan says:
Oh hell. Sure it resembles King Kong but who makes the connection that a Black man looks like an ape? Honestly? Is that the first thought you had? That is sad it that is the case. My first thought of the cover had nothing to do with King Kong, but after looking at the pictures couldn’t you just as easily depict it as a black man being powerful and caring toward the woman. Because if you have ever watched King Kong, that is how he was meant to be portrayed. He holds the girl because he loves her and feels he is protecting her.
March 20th, 2008 at 10:29 am
Manny says:
I think Lebron needs to be careful when he’s doing these shoots, to not set us back 100 years because there’s money on the line. It’s easy to lose focus when all of your, and your parents’ struggle is behind you. The devil’s world is just another dollar away. Keep it real. Be true to yourself and your people.
March 20th, 2008 at 10:48 am
CCB says:
First, Obama was right. I wrote a book, I hate to pub it here but it fits: 100 Black and White Questions, with a White counterpart as a grad project. After a long back and forth where I realized that White people will often look at racism and dismiss it as “Blacks and Latinos living in the past,” and my co-author realized that I would not let go of the issue of racism until I was able to explain to him that James Byrd, Abner Louima and Amadou Diallo didn’t happen thirty years, we finally reached an understanding. This happened when I asked him if he would send his kid to an inner city school and then I asked him to think about the fact that people who are unable to afford private school or move from their area to attend ‘better’ schools, don’t have the choice of not sending their kids to the school. Obviously it was a lot deeper than this but for the sake of brevity.
The cover is wack. For anyone that understands the long history of misrepresentation of Black men in America they will instantly see this cover and cringe. There are people who cross the street when they see me coming and there are women who clutch their purses. This is a very dangerous image for a number of reasons, it continues to perpetuate the idea of Black men as ferocious, hypersexual, agressive, athletes, instead of promoting Lebron as the international icon that he is attempting to make himself into by 2010.
This is an image that caters to every stereotype: Black men want “submissive, docile” White women. If you don’t see this in this picture, then good for you. You have not been exposed to those people who clutch, their purses, or follow you around stores or in the case of Deunta Farrow, a 14 year old Black boy shot by a White cop in Arkansas a few months ago, you have not been profiled.
For those of us who know what it feels like to be stared at like you are the same as a criminal on America’s Most Wanted, it is an unfortunate pic. I make this statement for Blacks and Latinos often, we do not have the privilege of anonymity. The group is the person and the person is the group. The images we create for the world to see are not individual pics, they represent the group in totality. Why not show Lebron standing on a stack of weights with his shirt ripped off? (simple answer that would imply that White women can’t keep their hands off of Black athletes. With pictures, and any artists knows this, things are rarely unintentional.)
This is a very unfortunate picture.
Chris B
I am also forwarding this to Vogue
March 20th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Sean Couch says:
bob:
never said bron gets paid for being on the cover, and of course he is a nike athlete on contract…my point is that its the woman on his arm that’s the pay.
March 20th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
Robin says:
I agree with CCB. When I first saw this cover, I definitely didn’t make the King Kong connection, but I still thought it was troubling. LeBron looks really angry and aggressive, which wouldn’t be so weird except that this is a Vogue cover. Giselle looks uncomfortable, like LeBron is dominating her and she has to kind of play along with it or else.
Divorced from context, the King Kong parallel might be just a playful callback to this other famous image. But this type of portrayal is connected to powerful stereotypes that still influence the way people think about race, and make them more likely to see Black men as all those things CCB mentioned as well as as rapists of white women. So Vogue really needs to be more careful when it comes to presenting images that can reinforce damaging stereotypes.
(It’s also interesting to contrast this with the cover they had with George Clooney and Giselle. Definitely no awkward and threatening hypermasculinity in that one, although to be fair it would make less sense with a non-athlete. I’m not sure why it ever does make sense, though.)
March 20th, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Lamont says:
ya tha first thing I be thinkin when I saw dat was damn muh boy be lookin like da monkey from dat movie. lebron is da king tho
March 20th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Ellie says:
Here’s a question to ask yourself: would Vogue have picked this assy art direction if it was Tom Brady with Gisele?
I’m guessing no.
I get that LeBron designed his own clothing line, but why didn’t they take a stylish photo of him? Instead we get the power squat, the rage scream, the arm around the token supermodel/trophy woman in the inexplicable evening gown. If they’re pimping his clothing line, why isn’t she dressed along the same lines? If they want the evening gown look, why not put him in a suit.
He totally looks like King Kong (first thing I thought on seeing it).
At best, it’s condescending. At worst, it’s racist.
For a fashion magazine, it’s definitely fugly.
March 20th, 2008 at 11:47 pm
Bakar says:
Hear, hear. Supporters of the cover will say that people shouldn’t take this too seriously and they’re probably right; but the bottom line is that there are way better alternatives to potray Akron’s Finest.
March 21st, 2008 at 10:34 am
ILYD says:
We, young and old, have worked so hard to build better race relations, and honestly, its almost insulting that people think the cover of Vogue even has the potential to undo all that we have done. I know racism is alive and well up North, but it is so in your face down here in the South. Katrina, Jena 6, Trent Lott, Sorority Row, water shortages on one side of the tracks and not the other–these things are in my front yard. The issue of how to deal with racial tension plagues us all–black, asian, white, latino–and one thing that we have learned is to not lead the majority (white males) on to believe they have more power over minorities than they really do. A Vogue cover does not have, and I will not give it, the power to influence how I view myself or others around me. Imagine that–letting white America think that their little magazine cover is capable of unraveling so many years of progress. PUHleeease. Naw, we better than that, stronger than that and our progress cannot be undone so easily. People are always saying “it is what it is,” but baby its only that way cuz you made it that way. I give that cover no more attention than it deserves–”Lebron James, cool” —and I keep it movin.
March 21st, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Bobbito Garcia a.k.a. Kool Bob Love says:
ilyd-
the way to “not lead the majority on to believe they have more power over minorities” is to call them out when they are wrong and not silence our judgement. we have to remain critical. it is our duty to our past and our future. and great–you, me, and many of the progessives wil give that cover no more attention than it deserves, much less buy it, but it will construct a thought in lesser minds who aren’t as open. and for that i feel great that jeremy put this post up. the dialogue in and of itself has gotten people thinking. and that is a good thing.
March 22nd, 2008 at 10:44 am
CCB says:
Bobbito is right, the simple idea of discussion can cure a world of ills. By stating that one picture does not undo years of progress, or that it does not have the ability to remove the progress of Blacks and Latinos is a very dangerous, very conservative brand of thinking.
There has never been one instance that created a revolution or the downfall of a society. There have always been things that occured and continued to develop over time that have led to an outburst or the mistreatment of a people.
Images are powerful. Why do you think NYC created such a fuss over graf only to eventually see the power and implement into classic art galleries. The images in the John Mayer video of various graf, was more powerful than the song was. One picture can indeed spark a riot or change the world, don’t be so naive to think it can’t.
The picture of the Tibetan monk, the little gilr that was napalmed, hell as a hoops reference, the picture of the Holcombe Rucker sing can bring on all types of responses. Pictures, are powerful and this picture in the hands of a Bill O’reilly or some other person is dangerous.
I agree with not giving it power and possibly I have, but don’t think for a minute, that this picture hasn’t generated any feedback on the Vogue side as well. As Bobbito said, at least we are having a discourse, on a hoops board of all places.
March 24th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
ILYD says:
Bobbito and CCB: I stand corrected. THANK YOU for enlightening me. I am grateful for your words of wisdom and hope to have many more discussions with you “on a hoops board of all places.”
Humbly,
ILYD
March 26th, 2008 at 12:44 am
illest says:
Will Lebron care about how he is portrayed in this photo? No he wont. Which is the sad thing.