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

[AntonioMaceo]

I don't see the vogue cover as racist. It's just an archetype of masculinity and femininity. The ape pic kinda makes me lol, esp the German helmet, but I don't think there is any real comparison. The bottom line is that there are very real examples of racial stereotypes perpetuated through the media which one could focus ones attention on if one was inclined to look but this is not one of them imo.

[knerd]

Race relations in America.
You have done a favor to us all, sir.

[barriosbabe]

Since when did wry visual humour by a master fully cognizant of her graphical antecedents creating brilliant artwork become a problem?

[jayeeebee]

It became a problem once humor became unacceptable as a means of public discourse.

[AreYouFibbing]

Apparently since Rev. Wright's debut on national television. People who didn't give pictures like this cover are rethinking their stances on race.

[FourthOfJulyBaby]

Race and seeing racism in everything is the new "Reds Under the Bed" witch hunt of this era. I saw a hip Vogue cover with two celebrities others see racist proaganda. Everything has become a racist Rorschach Test. This is all designed to promote guilt about being racist even if you are not.

[Lazycrockett]

Every other source is going with the King Kong comparison which will play much better than the Huff WW1 anti German propaganda.

Wow you could have scored so much better.

[barriosbabe]

Wrong. As somebody who gets paid to research and compare images, I assure you the match in costume, hair wave etc is no accident.

[obamagramma]

I saw video of the shoot and they did many different outfits & poses in different locals. I don't know why they ended up going with that one...maybe it hit a subliminal chord but they didn't know what the ringing meant. (it was really an alarm bell going "bad idea").

[Waitaminute]

THANK YOU.

[victah]

I spelled monkeys wrong. Sorry.

[Garioch]

I actually thought of that poster the first time I saw the cover and assumed she was making a play on that.
After that I just found it vaguely interesting and you can then spend the next couple of weeks going through the various thoughts behind it and the issues it raises.
I assumed she was intending to provoke with it but the thoughts provoked are up to the person viewing it and as the lass is smiling and totally unthreatened in any manner I personally am quite happy with it and see it as a valid thought provoking image which allows me to laugh at anyone crass enough to be threatened by someone who happens to have more melanin than they have or that 'they' are going to run off with 'their' women.
How it strikes someone else is of course up to them and equally valid from the negative point of view a picture of a uber refined Black man with a White woman would provoke a similar response so going to an extreme like this plays on that and holds a mirror to the lunacy of that reaction.
It provokes and in an interesting and knowing manner and if that was the point then it has been a success as an image.
Good job.

[noam4prez]

So this is an ironic, "knowing", joking, racial stereotype image? Yeah, funny. Good job.

[victah]

Drop this issue please. It's getting ridiculous. It's reaching. With research you can find any picture to match a particular pose. It's coincidental. Remember the pictures comparing George W. Bush with chimpanzees from a few years back? They found a match for every picture. Now that I think about it that was pretty damn funny. I'm going to try to find those again. I need a good laugh. Lebron rocks!

[victah]

I found them. It is bushorchimp.com . Now I'm going to look for two monkees who match the pose from "American Gothic"

[Nobrun]

The cover picture only becomes racist if you choose to view it that way.

[wadenelson1]

EXACTLY!

[IndependentInChicago]

So now you think Annie Liebovitz is "delberately referencing racist stereotypes"? Get off the badwagon people, this is ridiculous and embarrassing.

[noam4prez]

Or, if you are deliberately referencing racist stereotypes.

[LeftLeanWing]

or seen at least one Tarzan movie.

[starboymikey]

As a long time Knicks fan, I'd say we could probably use the guy on the left. Our current big men really stink.

[Kane]

The Knicks could use the gal as well.

[starboymikey]

The Knicks could use the gal as well.
____________________________________________

Sure, if she can play point guard. She's got to be taller than Nate Robinson.

[Waitaminute]

Now thats the truth. Best post today.

[kevenseven]

See, I don't find black guys, even hugely muscled ones, all that scary. So I did not think much of the cover when first I saw it except perhaps that that was a handsome lad who was probably pretty satisfied with his life.

[GnitenGoodLk]

Well said. They're both beautiful, which is why any pose they'd taken are a benefit to Vogue. As a woman i think the photographer's vision wasn't that great, but as usual, beautiful subjects transcend mediocre artists.

Annie Leibowitz - Vogue photographer - infamous for trying to separate John Lennon from Yoko Ono in her Rolling Stone spread. He stopped her, made her include Yoko, and the photo became an icon for the generation.

This artist needs to re-visit those photos and find that magic again.

[Lazycrockett]

K, I love how you imply likely in the the ( ).

I see yellow journalism is hanging out.

[TheWordPimp]

Alright folks, lest we forget, this is the same woman who John Lennon chose to document the love he shared with Yoko Ono; how through that love, they once hoped to change the world. Annie is not a racist. That is not to say she doesn't use race in her art. Her photo of Whoop Goldberg nearly submerged in a tub of milk was more whimsical than political, but her photo of Chris Rock in whiteface certainly raises some eyebrows. That's what artists try to do--raise eyebrows, get people talking.

I, for one, wouldn't be surprised if she happened across that WWI recruiting poster in some antique store and thought about the ramifications of portraying Germans & Prussians as apes, a stereotype usually reserved for blacks. Maybe she was delighted at the possibility of recreating the scene with Lebron and knew full well the racial overtones. But if you can judge Annie as racist because of one image out of the thousands of beautiful and celebrated images she's shot throughout her illustrious career, then you may want to explore your own feelings about race, and how you allow those feelings affect your judgment.

[GreatFutureForAll]

"but her photo of Chris Rock in whiteface certainly raises some eyebrows.........But if you can judge Annie as racist because of one image out of the thousands of beautiful and celebrated images.... "

You don't have to be a racist to produce something bigoted.

I don't blame her. I blame the hateful atmosphere much of New York has become. It's that atmosphere that made that cover possible.

She produced it. Management at Vogue must have loved it.

[noam4prez]

"...if you can judge Annie as racist because of one image out of the thousands..."

What percentage of her images would have to be racist for her to be racist? This isn't about putting a label on Annie, or not. It is about her behavior as an artist, and whether she is exploiting Lebron, or his race, to promote herself.

[TheWordPimp]

Art is exploitation. It's just comes down to a matter of whom or what is being exploited, and for what cause, if any. And ultimately, the exploitation becomes valid if the truths revealed by that exploitation are worth the costs.

Your logic is backwards. There is no set number of images (body of work) that makes any artist a racist. That judgment can only be made through a deeper understanding of the artist him/herself. How well do you know Annie?

[LeftLeanWing]

No one thinks Annie is a racist; nor the purveyor of racist material. But this image is unfortunate.

[stringer]

We don't have time for this right now. Iraq is falling apart, the economy is deteriorating and the second coming of the Clintons is in its death throes.

Agreed it's blatantly racist, stupid, and more than a little weird. Annie Liebovitz has always been kind of off the radar when it comes to sanity.

Let's get a black man elected president, not because he's black but because he's the smartest and best candidate, and I can deal with the rest of this crap as it comes. My gut tells me it's soon about to go the way of the dodo bird which is why so many are fighting so hard to hold onto these last vestiges of intrinsic racism. They know they (the symbols) are on their way out and people are quickly starting to stop falling for this crap. I just hope it comes soon enough. Based on the poll results, which show most people had the sense to ignore the Wright nonsense, I think they are. This is about to be a much better country. And I, for one, can't wait!

[AreYouFibbing]

but she has played a judge many times in Law & Order :)

[rudyinbama]

That the gorilla poster is a teaser or basis for this shoot does look likely, but the result is quite different.
Just look at the smile on Gisele Bundchen's face - she is no more a helpless ingenue than LeBron James is an animal.
They are both self-aware and sending up the roles they are playing
This photo is about sex and fantasy, and, frankly, it's pretty hot.

[eljodio]

It appears to me that the gorilla is a generalized symbol for black men and the white woman swooning in its arms, who knows from what, fear, desire, is what, at least back then, what every red blooded American thought black men wanted to do to their women and it's meant to stir up hatred towards those who wish to violate white American women. The hat on the gorilla's head, however, attempts to steer this hatred of black men towards Germans, and although the gorilla is naked (not that gorillas wear clothes, but neither do they wear hats) his penis is invisible, hidden by the body of the swoonng white female. However, the large bat or club that the gorilla holds in its hand and is emblazoned with the word 'kultur' is a symbolic stand in for the gorilla's absent penis which, no doubt, he intends to violate said swooning white female with. The most recent update of this piece of racist symbolism pictures the very particular image of Lebron James with one arm around a very attractive smiling white female, and the other bouncing a basketball. While the picture is not intended to evoke hatred of Lebron, as in the case of the German gorilla, it still nonetheless plays on stereotypes, in this case, while Lebron's penis is invisible (like the gorilla's) the basketball, like the club, is a symbolic stand in for the black man's virility (all black men are natural athletes, etc.)