Liebowitz’s inspiration was apparently a WW-I military recruitment propaganda poster.

http://jezebel.com/371923/maghag

http://home.comcast.net/~krkaufman/du/lebron_as_brute2.jpg

Maybe I’m just too naive, but the truth is that I like the cover and see nothing wrong with it.

OK, sure, so I guess you could make that comparison, but really, do we have to?

I saw it as a cover showing opposites in a very visual manner without reading anything into it
Black / White
Strength / Fragile
Dressed down / Dressed up

Why do we have to make everything a race issue?

It’s like saying that this
http://www.thirdwayblog.com/images/1600/vogue%20cover1.jpg

reminds me of this
http://i.pbase.com/u18/bobskocpol/small/11822851.ClintSkocpolstranglingMary.jpg

Let’s stop trying so hard.

Ok, the point of art is to provoke some sort of reaction from the viewer. Mission accomplished! Annie Leibovitz is probably laughing her ass off at at the media’s reaction to this cover. It’s all quite silly.

If you don’t think there’s something offensive about that cover there’s something wrong with you. White men in their 20’s working at hipster magazines called foul when they saw this.

And wasn’t James drafted into the NBA right after high school? If he’d gone to college he would have learned a thing or two about race and representation in media and would have learned a thing or two about controlling his image.

@cacy: I don’t care if White hipsters called foul when they saw this. These hipsters always condemn and criticize other Whites (who they see as less progressive & intelligent) for making statements or doing things that are not politically correct. Do they really and truly care about Blacks and Latinos (and racism)? I think not! They just want to make it very clear that they are smarter and better than uneducated Whites.

Also, you said: “If he’d gone to college he would have learned a thing or two about race and representation in media and would have learned a thing or two about controlling his image.”

That’s an excellent point. But, you know what—if I scrutinize your comment from a hyper-PC perspective (just like those hipsters probably do every day), I’d say you’re also perpetuating stereotypes. You suggest that James isn’t as enlightened as you because he didn’t sit in some classroom listening to some passionate professor talk about institutional racism of various kinds (I have — and a lot of it is total crap, but that’s another story). Hm, maybe you’re right. James is just a foolish, uneducated Black man. He can’t think for himself. Poor guy. He obviously needs someone to take care of him.

Wow, from a hyper-PC perspective, you’re comments almost sound racist. Wait, do you work for Vogue magazine? Gasp.