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

[pennyfortheguy]

Brady Loses Again?

[pennyfortheguy]

Jovially Racist! By Jove.

[chronic]

People are to dumb to be aware of what these advertisers are doing to get them to buy thier products.

[boonjava]

That's the key here. Lebron is a monster on the court and that's how he's portrayed here with a basketball. If anything, the real victim here is Tom Brady, whose girlfriend is draped all over James. How's he supposed to compete with that?

[wadenelson1]

I'll bet Brady is gonna cry all the way to the bank with Gisele.

[Meah]

Good post!

[InformedMisery]

Some people are really quite stupid.

[Tway Master]

im not sure about the WW1 poster and the vogue cover relation, but the cover is....stra­nge. I'm not really sure if i want to call it racist, or awkward. I mean Le Bron is an athlete and he looks like he just made a slam dunk. But i dont understand the girl? It's a strange cover. It looks like they wanted too make him out to be King Kong.

[LinusBern]

I'm surprised Annie Liebowitz would do a photo with such a bad airbrush job on the dress.

[BlkJDPHD]

Implicit anti-Black bias predicts Whites’ justification of violence against Blacks. For example, Goff and colleagues subliminally primed individuals with images of apes or big cats. They then asked these individuals to view a videotape of police officers beating a suspect who individuals were lead to believe was Black or White. Individuals who believed the suspect was White perceived the police as being no more justified when primed with apes vis-à-vis big cats. Individuals who believed the suspect was Black perceived the police as being more justified when primed with apes vis-à-vis big cats. Moreover, individuals who were primed with big cats did not think the police were more justified in beating the White or Black suspect. In contrast, individuals who were primed with apes thought the police were more justified in beating the Black, as opposed to the White, suspect. Finally, Goff and colleagues discovered that Black, as opposed to White, criminal defendants are more likely to be portrayed as ape-like in news overage, and this portrayal is associated with higher levels of state-sponsored executions.

[Meah]

huh? This was a magazine cover for God's sake!

[Mutineer]

I didn't see this as racist until the media told me I should be offended.

[rrafiringa]

OK, this is just getting ridiculous!

[UncleJimbo]

It's a coincidence! Someone had to do some real digging for this! WW I indeed!

[antv]

coincidence? look at the pose, the color scheme right down to the color of the woman's hair. this is clearly, and blatantly a portrayal of large, brutish, wild, black man, meets delicate, helpless white woman. To me, it is very offensive.

[zona9]

The beast in the poster on the right was the Germans, not black men and the woman is a representation of the statue of liberty.

[klandish]

At least she's smiling and not fainting..­.. an upgrade?

[ESerafina42]

Oh, puh-leeze.

[Mrrar]

Because he's.. German?

Note the cap on the Ape. It's meant to represent the Kaiser.

Thanks for de-educating the public though, that's great of you.

[DasBoot]

That's the power of enemy images. Yes, even a German can be presented effectively as a black beast if you want white Americans to get ready to go out and kill.

[BOfever]

If you ask me, I think you guys are all stupid if you think this is the case. LeBron himself said he did the pose on his own because he liked it, the cover is LeBron having fun. He wasn't told to emulate King Kong.

[DasBoot]

Now you know why so many French deconstructionists declared the death of the author. LeBron is not the only author of this image. As soon as it is in the public domain, people will appropriate it in different contexts.

[Meah]

Yes, depending upon the baggage they are carrying, apparently.

[Ori]

oh c'mon, I'm thinking it was meant to be a little controversial. I don't think its that big of a deal , but you cant deny the similarities.

[chumleypotts]

It would have been advisable for the photographer to tell Lebron not to pose in that manner because he obviously knew that it may evoke subliminal images of King Kong and Fay Wray in some peoples eyes. Ultimately, Vogue deserves the blame for allowing this racially-charged cover to pass through the editing process and arrive at the newsstands. In this new era of hyper-sensitivity, we must all be vigilant to insure that any implication of age, racial ,or gender biases must be thoroughly examined and retractions issued to the offended.

[Hagrid]

Much ado about nothing.

This whole PC thing is getting way out of hand.

[qdog112]

This whole PC thing now allows you to go beyond civil bounds. This is a blatant example of what apologist say anytime outrageous acts of racism are revealed. Lebron's handlers should have known better. I bet the Vogue people knew. This kind of insidious racism is quitely pased on from generation to generation. Think maybe the original poster was a family heirloom? It is too close to be coincidental - down to the color of the dress! Come on!