The rush to cry fowl on anything that comes close to, or seems to have a racial interpretation, or what we now know as a racial overtone is disgusting. Some people especially people of color, and specifically black people are making it almost impossible for any form of racial integration in this country.
Lebron James was in what i thought was an amazing picture that is current cover of Vogue magazine and some people are going crazy. The thing is that Lebron gives an agressive look, holding a basketball in one hand and the model in the other. The model on the other hand glamorously smiles in a brightly colored dress. Some people claim what they see is a cover screaming the stereotypic "dangerous black man". It really irritates me, but if a dangerous black man is one who can keep his lady happy even with that kind of look on his face, i think i might want to be a dangerous black man.
I have a problem with people who read racial meanings into everything. Why are people so uptight about their race. Why can't we, especially the blacks amongst us, look at a cup that contains something about the black race and see it as half full. In some of the more developed parts of Africa, it isn't uncommon to find comedians making jokes about many races and finding people of the race laughing along. Last night i heard a black stand up comedian make jokes about a Chinesse man in his crowd. Everybody was laughing, but every now and then people just seem to want to cause discord.
I heard a black guy on the O'Reilly Factor comparing it to rap videos where women are degraded, Let me get this straight: He's comparing laldies many of whom can't feed themselves, and are called b's and ho's in videos where some guys practically use them as toys and objects of "bling bling", to a picture where the stunning lady beside the black guy is smiling. It is absolutely ludicrous to see a guy beside a SMILING lady and claim the photographers are trying depict a violent black man.
The black community has issues it has to deal with. Many people point to poverty, violence, sub-standard education and other politically motivated issues. But i believe the greatest issue blacks have to deal with is the victim mentality. More than any thing this is what i believe is killing the black race. Some of the greatest writers have come out of those same so-called sub-standard schools. Many of the greatest doctors and aviators too have done the same. If Chris Gardener can make it then a broken system has very little to do with this. Because for him, well, there was no system.
Lots of people see nothing wrong with the cover, and those that do have a right to their views. Consider this however, very often, your views say more about you than the way you express or articulate it. The problem might be you but you're trying to project it on the society. Take care of your business and everybody will be fine.
Nice blog, I agree that it shouldn't be construed as racial. It was just a good photo, and showed his expression on the court.
of the cover the New Yorker had during the campaign, which depicted Senator Obama and his wife as stereotypical "radicals." The cover was meant to be tounge in cheeck (the New Yorker is one of the more liberal magazines out there) yet alot of people just didn't have a good sense of irony.
"when you hold a pen, you are at war" Attributed to Voltaire