Much to do was made by several Negro columnist (and more than a few of their white guilt riddled counterparts) protesting and questioning a recent Vogue magazine cover featuring a wonderfully portrayed LeBron James.
One columnist characterised the photo as being like King Kong holding his kidnapped white girl. Insinuating that LeBron was being portrayed as a violent ape, crazed by the possibility of handling a white woman.
From espn.com's Jemele Hill:
A black athlete being reduced to a savage is, sadly, nothing new. But this cover gave you the double-bonus of having LeBron and Gisele strike poses that others in the blogosphere have noted draw a striking resemblance to the racially charged image of King Kong enveloping his very fair-skinned lady love interest.
LeBron is just the third male ever to appear on Vogue's cover, but it's hard to believe Vogue would have made Brett Favre, Steve Nash or even David Beckham strike his best beast pose. And even if Vogue had, it wouldn't carry the same racial undertones as having a fear-inducing black man paired with a dainty damsel.
Too often, black athletes are presented as angry, overly aggressive and overly sexual.
We take offense at Ms Hill's offense.
The notion that James is being portrayed in an offensive way is ignorant. It is fueled by a desire (conscious or not) to conform to the white man's attempts to confine and unsuccessfully refute the Original Man's superiority in physicality.
The evilishness of the plot Ms Hill has found herself being hooked by is that it depends on the Negro to be the one to demand that James image be that of a melba toast, yes sir- no sir nonthreatening minstrel of basketball.
Ha.
James is a beast on the court. Let the white man fear him.
Let the white women imagine being held on that muscular arm of his.
Let them.
And let the Negro not be deceived by this attempt by the mainstream media to use reverse psychology on them. Let the Negro not be bamboozled into forming self-lynching parties to police the Negro ranks and force conformation with the white man's desire to quell the natural Negro physical (add in sexual) domination.
We understand, that as a fairly plain looking Negress, that Ms Hill would be threatened by the uninhibited affirmation of the Original Man's virility. Certainly, she would think that most white women (when presented with such an image) would be compelled to lay themselves down before the Original Man. Lessening her own chance of landing one.
We get that. And are sympathetic to the factors which would help to drag Ms Hill into this plot.
But we ask that she not go about questioning a photo such as this or trying to add some sort of racially offensive overtone to it.
The picture is accurate and real.
Accept it.
If it scares the white folk, it scares them.
We ask that women of Ms Hill's ilk take a moment of silence on this particular non-issue. That they not make an issue out of something that isn't one.
Let the brothers tap that milky nana in peace.
Yes, we can change.
Obama '08
