LeBron James Vogue Cover: No Doubt About "Kong LeBron" Intent

 There has been much debate on this issue over the last week, some of worth and some of waste and the easy score, but the feeling has been strong on all sides. I wish to say no more other than, we should want for better in our time, and in doing so, hold to account our own ideas of fairness and just cause in this modern world with the modern media. 

Annie Leibovitz one of the most astute photographers of our time, is very much in tune with the King Kong image (see link below), the depiction is strong and it must be understood that intentions were solid in thought and execution.

PIC

Of note, the dress that is worn by Gisele Bundchen is much the same color of the Statue Of Liberty.

There are depths to this, and they have been met by plausible denial, in the national media and even here on Bleacher Report.

DEBATE

- Will we even have a debate of worth?  I am sick of people as young as I thinking it is clean cut either way. It isn't simply the media or anything else just looking for an issue when there is none, or trying to make a larger issue about an easy racism story by once again making something outa nothing.

I wish it was easy as that, I really really do. This is the real deal to me, it is the hushed up racism the kind that is softer spoken, by people with good intention, this time around on a slick fashion magazine.

Don't tell me it was not meant and don't dare tell me you are happy with it or not bothered, for those that say either, I call on them to open there eyes and take stock of themselves, don't say I am alone in thinking the image inside the magazine should have been used instead of the Kong image.

We must want for better and demand more from our generation, it may not be so clear for us in these modern times, we have no boycott of the busses, it is not as clear as that these days.  Although this stuff may not scream as loud or have such a big bang as those events that went before us, but be sure of this, it is just as meaningful in our times.

We are simply dumbing down the argument. To all who wish for better say something, demand better, but don't be fooled that this issue is not the real deal.

- In the King Kong poster, Germany is represented by a brutish beast and defiler of women. He carries the club of the Germanic culture to beat us over the head with.

- Leibovitz’s photo is a commentary on the modern changes in our culture. In the photo Gisele is the public and James is the great brute, representative of sport and how the world of which has taken us over.

- However innocent, the depths of racism are clear and Leibovitz understands that most people would draw the comparison between a black man and an ape, but not a white man and an ape.

- Criticism of James here is apt. He is allowing himself to be a tool and through his own choosing like many of us in denial. He has no idea what was going on, and he probably doesn’t care either like many of us. However the depiction is clear and he like a lot of us young and old need to wake up. 

and so we can go on and on... 

However you sway on this, do not mistake the intention here.