LeBron James' Vogue cover called racially insensitive -- Period...

When Vogue announced its April cover starring LeBron James and Gisele Bundchen, the magazine noted with some fanfare that James was the first black man to grace its cover.

[Sticks and Stones]

Can everyone just shut up! Let's create some controversy because it's a little slow in the news world right now.

[Lou P]

poeple are over reacting.....what do you say about the covers of Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods?

[BUBBA]

I THINK THE COVER IS INSENSITIVE TO KING KONG !!!

[Howie]

Call the Revs. AL and JESSE !!!!!!

[Unbiased]

Maybe black athletes are seen as "aggresive and threatening" because that's how they market themselves.

Are we really expected to believe that these high price athletes are forced into an image by the media when they employ high-paid agents and marketing firms.

If you look for racism, you'll find it. But you have to ask yourself, who's the racist?

[Now Wait a Minute]

You want to blame anyone- blame James. He posed that way. Does that make him a black racist?
Stop looking for reasons to find trouble.

[Jen]

I don't see the hidden "King Kong" message. I see an athlete wearing his game face. I saw it before I even read that that was what LeBron James was going for. With Gisele Bundchen I see a beautiful model. They are both expressing themselves according to their profession. If Bundchen was suppose to be portraying Fay Wray, why is she smiling so beautifully in the picture with her own arm around James?

[nick]

OMIGOD are you insane? Men always get into a frenzy about their sports no matter what their color? And they usually like pretty tiny women.

[D Chicago]

Slow news day = Ignorant story.

[Tom]

I thought people were trying not to see things as black and white, yet we still get people who suggest such little details to be racist. A simple photo racist?

[nick]

anyone who sees LeBron as an ape in that photo or even as depicted itself is a closet bigot/racist.

I did NOT think this when I saw the cover. I didn't think he looked ANYTHING like an ape. he looked like an athlete pumped about his game.

so anyone who thinks OTHERWISE has something in THEIR OWN heads to overcome. Not all of us see a black athlete and think of an "ape". C'mon now. That's racist to even SEE that in ANY photo unless he was put in an ape COSTUME.

How racist are these critics? That actually kinda disturbs me the more I think about it that anyone actually SEES an ape depiction in this photo. That makes these PC bleeding hearts the racists and that's why they try to pin racism on the rest of us BECAUSE THEY'VE GOT IT IN THEIR HEADS.. THE BIGOTED THOUGHTS.

I certainly don't.

[Keen Observer]

These left wing lunatics need to get over their obsession with race and get a life. They are the first to complain about not having enough blacks on TV or in the movies. Then, when LeBron is put on the cover of prestigious magazine, they come up with this nonsense. If that was Larry Bird on the cover in the same pose, would they complain he looked like an albino King Kong. Get over yourself and talk about something meaningful for a change!!

[Dchicago]

I'm so SICK of people making issues that have NOTHING to do with race a controversial racial matter. He is a basketball player and she is a beautiful woman, GET OVER IT! There are much more pertinent issues going on worldwide that deserve articles in the Tribune more than the cover of Vogue. Instead of celebrating the joining of a black man and white woman on a major magazine cover you are complaining about it. So, YOU are perpetuating the "stereotype" by insinuating racial foul play, not the magazine. Nice work.

[Dave]

The people who are saying that LeBron looks like a dangerous ape are the ones spreading the stereotype. It's a great photo and people need to settle down. Nobody was hurt in the photo shoot.

[adam]

They should have portrayed lebron james as GOD...because he may as well be

[sean]

I'm thinkin' how lucky he is to have a hand around Giselle's waist and get paid for it! lighten up folks!

[Chicago Bulls Fan]

I think Christa, the "black" accountant says it best when she speaks of a "hypersensitivity to race still in this country". No kidding. Who cares who is on the cover of Vogue anyway?

[Steve Wilson]

Dave wrote:

The people who are saying that LeBron looks like a dangerous ape are the ones spreading the stereotype. It's a great photo and people need to settle down. Nobody was hurt in the photo shoot.

Well said. And better still - Lebron likes it & has no issue with it.

Shame on the Tribune for including commentary by a documented racist in Jamele Hill (source: multiple The State News "editorials")

[Brian]

Whine, whine, whine about everything be racist - no one cares.

"But the image is stirring up controversy, with some commentators decrying the photo as perpetuating racial stereotypes. James strikes what some see as a gorilla-like pose, baring his teeth, with one hand dribbling a ball and the other around Bundchen's tiny waist."

Well, you can't make a purse out of a pigs ear, as they say.

[Put LeBron in high heels]

and a skirt and he'd STILL be hot.

Seriously, why would a black man have to put on a suit and smile like a nonthreatening creampuff to be on the cover of Vogue? He's an athlete, he posed like one.

The only disappointment will be when you turn the page and find the magazine filled with photos of hairless, emaciated male models who are indistinguishable from teenage girls.