Friday, March 21, 2008

A fresh (not!) look for the black athlete

When I found out that LeBron James was to be on the cover of Vogue, I was hoping for a different type of image than one that would fall into one of two typical categories for black athlets: 1. athlete in menacing pose (dangerous); or 2. athlete with shirt off (sexualized).
It turned out to be #1. I was disappointed -- as was ESPN's Jemele Hill, who writes about the image. Hill takes James to task for it, but certainly, that image is one of many for which he posed. I'm sorry the magazine editors opted for such a tired, stereotypical depiction.
p.s.-- To Jemele: Please, when appropriate, take ESPN's magazine to task for these same types of images.

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