Vogue Magazine made history with their April 2008 issue featuring basketball player LaBron James and model Gisele Bunchen. James happens to be only the 3rd man to adorn the cover int he publication's 116 year history. If I was just reading a press release, would be exciting news. After seeing the images of the cover, I am horrified, outraged, confused and wondering why more people, black and white, aren't as well.
LaBron James is depicted in the same context as King Kong taking this white woman as his prize. The recreation of this image is no coincidence. Unfortunately, these international media conglomerates continue to walk the line with images like this and no one seems to care.
To liken a black man to a primate is simply reprehensible. I would be just as pissed if he was posed with Beyoncé Knowles, Gabrielle Union, or any other black personality. I've grown so tired of the way blacks are depicted in this hyper-sexual and animalistic light. How much blood money did he accept to sell out in this manner?
We can pretend but need to accept and confront the black image in the white mind. White men are threatened by the black male. These is this overarching perpetuation on all fronts that black men desires white women and they're trophies of sorts. They also see blacks as hyper
-sexual, emotional, and our instincts primal, at best. In 2008, we're still seen as monkeys. The reality is that as upset as I am, LaBron James participated in the photo shoot saw that images before they went to print. If he objected, I'm sure he would have had some type of creative control. The reality is that didn't. LaBron James--idol to little black boys the world over--has decided that this imagery is acceptable.. or at least for the right price. It's so hard wanting more for people than they want for themselves.
It's most interesting how racism, even in the days of "Obama," exist so strongly in these United States. More alarming is the level that it exist with our own community. Within the diaspora black folks spend so much time trying to be separate, unique, and exclusive while all along continuing to perpetuate a template to the rest of the world. Haitians, African Americans, Africans, South Africans, Ethiopians, Egyptians, Jamaicans, Trinidadian--BLACK FOLK. 
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