Uncovered: Possible Inspiration For Controversial LeBron James Vogue Cover

Ever since Vogue put basketball star LeBron James on its cover — only the third man, and the first African American man, to gain that distinction — the cover has sparked discussion. Critics have slammed Vogue for "perpetuating racial stereotypes," depicting the "dangerous black man" running off with a beautiful white woman (model Gisele Bundchen).

Now, Sportsfilter blogger Rogers Cadenhead (via Portfolio.com's Jeff Bercovici) uncovered a possible (likely) inspiration for the Annie Liebovitz shoot: a famous World War I recruitment poster from 1917.

The poster, which shows a gorilla and says "Destroy This Brute," would seem to justify any sort of outrage over the racial stereotypes perpetuated by the Vogue cover.

What do you think?

Comments

[Waitaminute]

There's no problem with this magazine cover, as long as it doesn't show anything thats would remotely implies charm, friendly flurting OR ANY KIND OF CONNECTION. Especially since she is in a nightie. As long as this powerful black man and this beautiful white woman, show absolutely no connection, its OK! Its ain't like they are about to get together or anything. He seems really into his basketball and game face, instead of that fine woman in that silky nightgown.

Its not what the two people on the cover think or what we think. It's clear to this older, not angry black man from Mississippi. Its what the people who chose this particular cover photo thinks. Its is clearly racist.

I wish there comes a time i want have to see these kinds of images. We are making good progress. I have never seen so many white people in my home state of Mississippi vote for a black man. NEVER! We simply have to keep working on it. But first, we have to recognize the history behind these type images. We don't want to repeat history, we want to change the future. VOTE OBAMA. He gives me hope, with no anger. GET RID OF THE ANGER IN US OLDER BLACK PEOPLE, VOTE FOR SENATOR BARACK OBAMA. or wait until all us old people with our bad experiences die out.

[ann1]

Waitaminute, I totally agree with your first paragraph. The portrayal is if he has absolutely no interest in the female. She almost looks like an object.

[who38]

Of course she's an object---this is a fashion magazine. She is just there to model the clothes.

[jennlynnward]

Really? You don't think it's ironic? I think this photo is very much aware of a racist past that at least (and perhaps only) in its most egregious characterizations is now deemed ridiculous enough for us all to smirk knowingly about.

[XCITIZEN]

Seriously, smirk knowingly about the racist portrayal of a black man as an animal on the cover of Vogue? What the F**K ever, jennlynnward.

[calgary]

The purpose of the cover was to get attention and sell more magazine. Mission accomplished.

[thatsNotWhatIHeard]

c'mon, this is annie leibovitz. Same famous photographer who did that very well known shot of Whoopi Goldberg in the bathtub full of milk, of an elder Louie Armstrong in his home, of Sly Stone, and countless countless other well known shots of, among others, prominent african americans. To say this shot, or the photographer herself, is racist is preposterous and is nothing more than a topic to sell papers.

The only upside to this whole made-up "controversy" is that it gets people talking about what the limits are in calling something "racist", so that we don't get way out of control on this. Otherwise, some other news agency is gonna do an expose' on the inherent racism of chocolate ice cream racist, while honest racism exists in true situations elsewhere on an everyday basis.

This whole event, by the way, is the very problem of "you decide" journalism. There comes a point when you could just give us all the facts, sans twist, sans obvious B.S., and tell us whats going on.

[intuition]

Such is the lowest level of consciousness in humanity.

[ecksman]

man i don't like these two photos juxtaposed next to each other.

[jeter2]

I would say the folks comparing a gorilla to a Black man are the real racists.

Nothing wrong with this cover unless you are looking for something to whine about.

[JWLANDSCAPES]

It must be an attack by the Clinton Campaign, gosh durn their playing the race card! This is laughable.

[AreYouFibbing]

Sorry....m­eant people who would have never given this cover another thought, are rethinking their stance on race.

[sayitloud]

On its website, Vogue describes the concept behind the magazine cover as follows:

"For this year's portfolio, photographed by Annie Leibovitz, Vogue traveled to New York, Los Angeles, and Ohio in order to catch the perfect pairings—like basketball star LeBron James playing ball with Gisele Bündchen and speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno taking Doutzen Kroes for a lap around the ice—in their natural habitats."

I'm sure that Vogue/Leibovitz are quite aware of, if not relishing in, the photo's racial content. The history of high fashion photography is filled with examples of photo shoots contrasting the lithesome model to some sort of "other," like the native peoples "in their natural habitats." LeBron James is no more than a prop (and a pawn) placed there both literally to hold up Bundchen and symbolically to support a tired and demeaning visual tradition.

[floydSmoot]

I thought the way you remove the "power" of derogatory statements was to adopt them as your own. Thus, gays can call each other queer, and blacks can call each other nigger. If so, then Annie has deflated the previous image in an artistic and powerful way.

[lisakaz]

Does Lebron have a moustache like the "brute"?

[hollyo]

The reactions say more about the viewer.

[Meah]

Yup.

[Ron130]

Again, the next time you see Tom Brady on the cover of the world's premire fashion magazine dressed in a tank-top and screaming wildly, let me know.

[Phuz01]

People are just looking for reasons to be offended. And every day, precious bandwidth is wasted on the offense du jour.

How is it people are offended by a magazine cover, but not by the fact that 4,000 soldiers and countless Iraqi civilians are dead because of a war that was started under fraudulent pretense?

How is it people are offended by a preacher's comments, but not by the fact the government is giving multi-bill­ion-dollar payouts to corporations as families are losing their homes?

If people would put half the energy they spend being offended into trying to change the world around them, maybe it would become a less offensive place in which to live.

[liberalrebuttal]

I'm a young Black woman and I saw nothing racist in it........­until this comparison. I think the responses to the cover are more guilty of inciting these feelings than the actual author. But I don't know. If she is an old woman from back in the day and has seen stuff like this and knows what it does , then maybe. But if she is younger like me , I don't think this would have crossed her mind.

[bettedavis]

as long as we're being racist, why hasn't anyone pointed out that giselle is not white.

[donttreadonme2008]

Touche'

[brazilian1]

hahahahaa!!! Are you serious?!
Giselle is white. She is Brazilian, but she is also WHITE. Just like Celia Cruz is Cuban, but also black. Come on people!

[KingT]

Of course, she belong to the white race. We are not talking about ethnicity here. Unless, your definition of being white is completely different from what all anthropologists considers it to be.

[mlaiuppa]

And if they did their jobs, they'd find the inspiration for the poster was "King Kong".

[fnordzap]

Recruitment poster 1917
King Kong 1933

[bobdevo]

Hardly likely. The poster was from 1917. King Kong (the movie) was made in 1933.

The chances that the poster "inspired" Annie Leibowitz is preposterously unlikely.

[plooger]

Actually, it is just the opposite. King Kong was inspired by the poster, and by a long history of "damsel dragged-off by brute" depictions, visual and written.

see the following for a chronological sequence of images:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3066231&mesg_id=3068494

... and the following book, whose March 15th paperback re-release may have been part of the inspiration for Liebovitz's photo (check out the book cover):
http://stereotypeandsociety.typepad.com/stereotypeandsociety/2008/03/just-out-in-pap.html

Could it be that Annie Liebovitz was trying to increase awareness of the book and the topics it covers?