LeBron Kong Attacks!
Why it still hurts to see a white woman draped across a teeth-baring black man.
March 28, 2008
And when he get on he leave your ass for a white girl.
--Kanye West
I've spent the day hugged up with Vogue -- staring into its beset April cover featuring athlete LeBron James and android Giselle Bundchen, and trying hard not to be numb.
I'm trying to brush off the fact that the first black man ever pictured on the magazine's cover is not gracing it, he's debased by it. They're trying to dismiss the recent calls of racial insensitivity as hypersensitivity. And we're trying to explain why seeing a big black man baring his teeth whilst an alabaster damsel drapes his side still hurts us in 2008.
People justifying the cover choice have scoffed at complaints that the pose conjures up the crudest King Kong symbolism. But Phillip Atiba Goff, assistant professor of psychology at Penn State University, recently conducted a study on the use of animalistic imagery in relation to black men. Titled, "Not Yet Human: Implicit Knowledge, Historical Dehumanization and Contemporary Consequences," the study, published recently by the American Psychological Association, asserts that "subtle metaphors" connecting black men and apes can go unnoticed but still have "great effect."
"They penetrate our unconscious," said Goff, "and they end up sort of powerfully influencing our behaviors."
The country vacillates, he explained, between being too afraid to discuss racism and race to simply ignoring the problem. America suffers simultaneously, he explained, from "racial hysteria" and "historical amnesia."
So, we're sick then.
When I bought the April issue for $3.99 at the Barnes and Noble in Georgetown, I definitely felt queasy. Holding it with both hands and looking at James in black warm-ups (his own line for Nike) and Bundchen in Calvin Klein, the cover didn't seem vulgar or racist or even non sequitur -- just lazy. The woman at the register sucked her teeth and tapped the magazine with her finger. "This is a really popular issue," she said. "Probably because of that photo."
"LeBron James is a beast," explained one of my guy friends, trying to justify the image. But even he agreed that coupling the animal metaphor with a white woman (yea, yea, she's Brazilian) elevates the photo from still life to real life.
Vogue spokesman, Patrick O'Connell, has described the "shape" issue as celebrating "diversity." If Vogue's masthead was diverse then maybe someone would have lifted a manicured hand and said, "Hey, guys, excuse me, but umm this might not fly with some folks."
Can we blame 57-year-old photographer Annie Leibovitz or 57-year-old editrix Anna Wintour? Had they never seen the seven movies based on the giant ape from Skull Island? Did they not know those films were about aggressive black male sexuality or did they think no one would notice?
"We fetishize the intentions in America," said Goff. "Who cares whether Vogue intended to cause harm?" The point is -- they did.
"This is not about who is or who isn't racist," Goff continued. "This is about living in the United States, seeing these images, not knowing where they come from, and not knowing how to be a good and wise consumer of them."
What's more is that Vogue seemed to be doing pretty decent when it came to celebrating actual diversity. Actress Jennifer Hudson graced its cover last year.
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LeBron Kong Attacks!
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View All Comments »Tai at 11/15/2008 10:17:21 AM
Comment:
Outside of this, one has to truly wonder what Sick Disease has infested the minds of some young Black men who hate their own Blackness so much they are driven seek out and marry the very same children whose forefathers beat, raped, burned, tortured, mutilated, and lynched their Black ancestors.
For Every Black who has forgotten their history in this country, use caution when viewing the websites below as the graphics are not for the faint hearted!
http://mtwsfh.blogspot.com/2008_02_08_archive.html
http://www.zimbio.com/Public+Enemy/articles/374/Terrorism+America+Nothing+New+Blacks+Afrikans
http://www.withoutsanctuary.org/main.html
http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/african/2000/lynching.htm
Tai at 11/15/2008 10:10:04 AM
Comment:
Outside of this, one has to truly wonder what Sick Disease has infested the minds of some young Black men who hate their own Blackness so much they are driven seek out and marry the very same children whose forefathers beat, raped, burned, tortured, mutilated, and lynched their Black ancestors.
For Every Black who has forgotten their history in this country, use caution when viewing the websites below as the graphics are not for the faint hearted!
http://mtwsfh.blogspot.com/2008_02_08_archive.html
http://www.zimbio.com/Public+Enemy/articles/374/Terrorism+America+Nothing+New+Blacks+Afrikans
http://www.withoutsanctuary.org/main.html
http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/african/2000/lynching.htm
Tai at 11/15/2008 10:09:37 AM
Comment:
As long as those in charge continue to portray to the world the Black man with white woman....Its a form of brainwash from the Willie Lynch Days...To Divide is to Conquer. They accomplished this in early American history by lynching most Black Men, and raping Black women. In mid American History they accomplished this feat by oppressing Blacks (giving Black households who lacked Black males welfare/gov't assistance etc, then portraying black men pimping their Black women in Hollywood movies, followed by a period of hiring the majority of Black women as opposed to hiring Black males). Thereby elevating Black women over Black men knowing this would inevitably lead to dissention in Black relationships, within Black households, and the inevitable dissolution of the Black family. If one looks at current statistics, you will find a singular consecutive connection to the Willie Lynch letter days.
Historically proven divisive tactics validates the destruction of the Black family today as evidenced by Black males unemployed and in Jail, Black females employed and in college, Black female single run households etc.etc...and the cycle continues!! And lo and behold, in 2008, you have the media daily portraying...Not Black men with their Black Woman, but Black Men with White women. "To Divide and Conquer" As long as those running the mainstream powerhouses in the U.S. continue these age-old tactics, Black folk as a whole will never unify, for to consolidate and unify means to Rise to Power!!! And what a powerful force Blacks would be if they were allowed to unify as a people, to unify as One! because God forbid that their historical accomplishments should be read about in school books or be made known to the World, and God forbid if Blacks should one day Rise to such Soaring Heights to become a Great Nation even more powerful than their Egyptian relatives!!! However, as many Blacks understand, an occurrence like this must be prevented and stopped at all cost, irregardless of the tactics used!