So the blogosphere is all abuzz about Vogue magazine’s choice of cover imagery when they finally put a black man on their cover. The picture of Basketball star LeBron James and Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen (who is, of German descent), is being labeled racist because it evokes the stereotype of the black male ravaging the white female. Some even say LeBron’s posture and pose evokes King Kong (which is actually the same stereotype).

The cover shot was taken by superstar photog Annie Leibovitz. Vogue did have other, less incendiary images for it’s cover. Like the one after the jump.

What’s wrong with this as a cover? Why was this not chosen? Because it wasn’t as energetic or because it wasn’t as controversial?

Annie Leibovitz may have some issues in terms of how she sees African-American artists through her lens.
Last year Vogue took heat for her cover image of Jennifer Hudson.

Even the Today show weighed in, with people deferring to the black woman on the panel asking, “school us, please because we don’t get it”.

The other side of the coin/debate is people saying, “Oh, you people of color are never happy. You want more images of yourself in the media and when you get them you get all picky and only want positive images”.

Imagine that?
What side are you on?

Via / Radar, Oh No They Didn’t, Frillr, AlterNet