FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Much ado about nothing. Let's find more crap to concern ourselves with so we don't have to face real issues ...

really who gives a rats ass

I agree... Who cares, but the picture did suck.

This guy is getting 20 million dollars for wearing shoes every night. Let him be.

And if you really care about how the cover of Vogue looks like.....

If only it were that simple as a picture on the cover of the magazine. It's also about images and whether we accept it or not, the image is a traditional one of the beast and the beauty; an image never seen of this young star. Unfortunately, it is also the stereotypical one of the black, sex-starved, immoral and undisciplined male longing for the pretty, sexually attractive, white female. True, most aren't going to see it that way, but the concept does exist. Actually, I'm hopeful the whole concept will be forgotten.

Absolutely absurd. If you have nothing better to do than attempt to analyze the social significance of a Vogue magazine cover, you should try to find a life worth while. You've got too much time on your hands.

Actuaally I saw the cover on ESPN and it was just another modern cover of a magazine. I never thought about King Kong and Fay Wray, most likely because I was noticing Gisselle. It must be nice to be with her and those legs of hers. People be making nothing of what.....? Is this some dude wearing thick black framed Clark kent glasses that only writes editorials - getting taken back by the brother and the white sister? There are all types of stereo-types for all types of people in the many shapes, sizes and colors. Life is funny, but people can be really "funny" about things that have no meaning - at all.

Sorry gang, but if this had no meaning, we wouldn't be discussing it. If images didn't matter, magazines wouldn't spend thousands on creating them. For the record, I too would love to have seen more of the model's body...and spend less time discussing the potential damage of the message or the image.

Can these people get a life? There have been more non-news events reported this week as hot items than any other week. Do reporters have a quota system like the cops?

I'm not much of a Lebron fan. He has no personality. Ever since I heard his "first billionaire" interview I lost interest in the guy. Of course he wouldn't question this magazine cover or perhaps that it might be detrimental because as far as I can tell he's endemic of our culture's obsession with "get $$$."

If anyone knows otherwise I'm of course open to hearing it, but honestly I have little respect for the guy as an individual, although I respect his game. I am not one of those that think that anybody trying to make a buck is justified in all circumstances.

Vogue is a WOMEN'S magazine. You are NOT their target audience. Ask KP,Ferrell, or smoothsandy what they think. I can guarantee you, their response will be different. You aren't going to buy Vogue unless...

This is absolutely absurd and racist.. Almost nobody looks at that cover and thinks menacing black man devouring white women.. To say so is ridiculous and people should keep comments like that to themselves

Actuaally I saw the cover on ESPN and it was just another modern cover of a magazine.

--Bond 007 | 03/23/08, 10:33 AM

Which is REALLY interesting, since it was Vogue that ran it. The plot thickens...
;)

This is absolutely absurd and racist.. Almost nobody looks at that cover and thinks menacing black man devouring white women.. To say so is ridiculous and people should keep comments like that to themselves
MMahoney | 03/23/08, 11:40 AM

Exactly! What we're seeing is what THEY saw. Not neccessarily what Vogue had in mind. Anyone who saw racism in this, should get a check up from the neck up.

all great points. seriously find some real issues to talk about! this is a cover of a fashion magazine. lebron dresses well, markets himself well and no one forced him to do this.

People need to grow up and stop being sensitive about everything. If Jemel Hill wants to see the biggest racist(and by far the worst sports writer) in the country she just has to look in the mirror.

Puleeeese! The man gets $20M per year! I always pictured the oppression of a race or person to be a little more severe than that!

Pay me $20M per, take my covershot on a Freeway offramp with Gisele Bundchen selling bags of oranges, please, oppress me.

I'd like to hear what Jason Whitlock thinks about this.

Well Hllywd I agree with you in terms of this particular cover which looks more or less innocuous to me (I mean, how else is a black basketball player supposed to pose with a model), but not in principle. Vogue exploits race and sex all the time for money, usually in subtle ways. This would not be the first time that affected magazine has been accussed of being either racist or sexist, or the fashion world for that matter. I wouldn't read too much into Vogue's intentions.

I would have like to have seen Lebron laugh it off but also acknowledge that it's a tricky issue and perhaps that he is openly confronting such a stereotype.

But for him and everyone else to claim that it is meaningless is disappointing and erroneous. Perhaps the meaning has been misconstrued, but nothing is meaningless. I agree with Nevada on this one.

The racist potential exists in the picture because history has made it so. No one can deny that the archetype of black man and white woman has been problematic in America for a while. Just because things have changed doesn't mean we no longer have to respect history, or the histories of other human beings.

From my experience blogging it seems that even suggesting that there are elements of racism in anything in society nowadays gets people in a huff, as if they are offended by the very notion of it. Of course we can justify and denounce ideas and concepts rationally and emotionally, but not simply by assuming that there's nothing going on because it doesn't pique us personally.