Just when you thought you could talk about race in America, just when you were feeling optimistic about our nation’s future, the proverbial spit hits the fan.
Seems as if there are a whole lot of people upset that LeBron James and model Gisele Bundchen posed for Vogue in photo “conjuring up this idea of a dangerous blackman”.
This is strangely similar to the uproar over Terrell Owens’ and Nicolette Sheridan’s little half time locker room commercial aired a November 2004 Monday Night Football game.
March Madness? Unfortunately it’s madness that occurs, as my nine-year-old granddaughter Rachel says, “24/7”. According to the mental midgets among us, the photo reminds them of King Kong holding Fay Wray, or in “shrink” terms, the black man being aggressive, powerful, and animal-like, manhandling the white woman.
King James doing a King Kong? How obscene, how twisted our little minds have become. LeBron seems like a gentle giant to me. According to those who know him and per the photographer who did the shoot for Vogue, the photo caught LeBron as he truly is, a big beautiful black man with a body full of tattoos.
That image doesn’t seem to frighten the world of the twenty something or thirty something’s as they text each other or as they listen to their Ipods or chat online. Nope, these feelings of insecurity live in the bowels of White Middle America. This fear of the black man, the “hood”, gangs, and rap are confined to those of us who are not part of that demographic.
I’m not going to engage in a debate on the American psyche and how race permeates our society and its thinking. I will leave those difficult and important issues to the politicians. But as an ordinary person who enjoys the beauty and grace of athletes and appreciates the glamour exuded by beautiful supermodels I can only assume that this brouhaha is consistent with a slow day in the world of sports.
By Ivette Ricco
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