LeBron: Clueless dupe, or promoter of racism?
There’s been quite the brouhaha over the Vogue cover featuring LeBron James and Tom Brady’s current flame that was shot by Annie Leibovitz. The not-so-subtle King Kong reference has given rise to a furious debate over the depiction of black athletes, with pundits far and wide hoping to set the new land-speed record for sphincterism.
But did you know that LeBron has been appearing in racially insensitive cover shots since high school? That’s right. The guy is practically a walking advertisement for the Klan. Here are some of the other controversial covers you might have missed…
The message the photographer is trying to convey is obvious: Though LeBron drives a car worth more than your house, he’s little more than a field hand. Okay, so he’s a very rich and adored field hand, but his neck is still rightfully under the boot of The Man, where it belongs.
In this view, LeBron is an assassin, and the photographer is clearly equating throwing a basketball -- commonly referred to on the “streets” as “the rock” -- with throwing an actual rock. The message: LeBron is really a masked rioter who throws stones at police, because that’s what black people like to do on their lunch hour.
That little head lock on Jimmy Kimmel might look playful to the untrained eye. In reality, it’s a subtle commentary on Lebron as the mean older brother who picks on little white guys who talk too much. Underlying message: Don’t talk so much, whitey, because black people are mean and give really hard noogies.
Haha! Clearly LeBron has the maturity of a little high school girl blowing a bubble during class. Message: Though black men give hard hard noogies, they’re really part girl and have posters featuring Troy Polamalu naked on their bedroom walls.
Here we go again, the most insideous stereotype of all: Black people are little more than cartoon amphibians created by Jim Henson. Really, shouldn’t this kind of racist imagery have died with Walt Disney?
– Vince the Polack
In the words of the commercials for my favorite beer "brilliant!"
Posted at: April 1, 2008 4:29 PM