Lebron James/Gisele Bundchen 'Vogue' Cover

impressive to whom?

impressive to the white man, while he holds a stunning white woman in his arms..

"look at me, i'm black, and I can be just as much sophisticated as you, whitey"

why would you be embarassed anyway? you embarassed to be black? or maybe you're embarassed to see a black guy, making such an aggressive pose, on the cover of a predominately white mag.

 

Dude, if I have to break that down for you then you and I are worlds apart and don't speak each other's language. If you think LeBron being on the cover with Giselle is in itself a major accomplishment then you are the easy foil Vogue was hoping to dupe in the first place. No white man would be threatened by that cover because there is nothing smoldering about it, nothing sexual or even playful. Giselle at best looks disinterested or perhaps as if she isn't even aware of the presence of LeBron in the first place. Big whoop. LeBron looks as if he is about to throw down in some WWE match or something; as if he doesn't know what to do when a good looking woman is up next to him. Yeah, he looks aggressive alright. Aggressive like a caveman who has clubbed the hottest woman in the village over the head and is now telling the rest of the males to stay away from his property. I'm sure the girls are getting all hot and bothered over that.

Geez its a cover that people across the country are laughing over and you think its some sort of great milestone in the history of IR. If that helps you sleep at night or feel better about yourself then by all means stay in that delusional relam you reside in. But I'm in the real world and as a person who has worked with a bunch of photographers over the years I can say that that ain't a cover I would be proud of to have even on the cover of a third rate porn mag.

Years ago Jamie Lee Curtis did a cover for a cable Guide magazine with ex Chicago Bears Willie Gault (I think that was his name). It was for a cover story about why women love football. Gault , a wide reciever, was a good looking cat with a long, lean body. He also was a graceful dancer too (took ballet to help with his football coordination). Anyway Gault was shirtless on the cover, his chest fully exposed, and Jamie Lee Curtis had wrapped her arms all aroud him and had a very pleasant smile on her face to boot. That cover caused a lot of controversy, especially amongst white men and black women (judging by the letters they printed). You know why? Because it was truly sexual. Even though Curtis and Gault were not involved with one another the photographer had the guts to make sure that he and especially her looked as if they were having a fun and hot time together as they wrapped each other up in their arms. Gault looked just like a dude on those covers of romance novels, the only difference being his skin color. Together the two of them looked like characters who were a couple and you could just imagine the possibilities of what they would be doing during the evenings if they were an item.

This is not how the Lebron/Giselle cover is handled. There are no smoldering looks exchanged or even a sense of innocent, harmless fun. There is no Lebron displaying true sexuality like Gault. Hell, I would have been happy if he had even worn a suit and had displayed a Cary Grant-Denzel Washington like sophistication; something that Michael Jordan would have been a natural at if he had gotten a chance to be on the cover of Vogue. And just look at the body language between them. Even though LeBron is holding on to her there is such a distance between them; she is an arm length's away from his face. And considering how long LeBron's arms are she might as well be on another continent. No intimacy, no heat, no sexual tension about the pose whatsoever. Yet you think its a glorious example of black male manhood? You've been watching too much porn. No, I'll take that back. Porn has more intimacy and relies more on chemistry than this farce of a cover.

Seriously do some of you ever listen to yourselves? You throw around accusations of self-hatred but seem clueless in picking up when people are actually slighting black men. Of course sometimes you overreact to small bullshit too as if you can't discern what's real racism and what is only imagined racism. And you see "victories" in some of the most ridiculous stuff like this cover. You put a female model with Tom Brady and you will learn how its done correctly. Brady would be presented as the suave, sexy, desirable Alpha male that the woman could not keep her eyes or hands off of. But, hey, that's the "whitey way" and why would a "brotha" want to be seen like some white dude? That is essentially your weak ass argument, right? And, oh, yeah, lets make sure the black guys never look all GQ like on the covers, we want them looking angry and demonstrative as if they are some rap star because we all know that sells with the ladies.

I would take issue with this cover even if it was LeBron with Tyra on the cover of Vibe. The fact that some of you think it was tight, perfectly acceptable and downright progressive may say something more negative about you than you realize or choose to accept. No, this cover isn't the worst thing in the world. But at the same time its nothing to gloat over either. Its a joke. I would say its a disappointment but I didn't expect much when I first heard about it anyway.

 

That would be because it would have hit a nerve ala Jamie Lee Curtis-Willie Gault. Unfortunately the cover we got from Vogue just make some people ask "why" to LeBron (because he looks like a fool) while others are simply laughing because of how silly they made him appear on the cover. White men, black women as well as the white women, who make up the majority of the readers, are probably laughing their asses off regarding this farce. Meanwhile a scattering of black males act as if this is the greatest achievement for the black man since the Emancipation Proclamation. :roll: