The story about LeBron James and Gisele Bundchen on the cover of Vogue and the racial message of the photo generated a lot of reader letters. Here are some of them.
Who’s scaring who?
“It conjures up this idea of a dangerous black man.” If that is what Vogue was trying to portray, why is Gisele Bundchen smiling?
Gabriel Faria, 21, Streeterville
Blackout
I see nothing offensive about the cover. When I first looked at it, “King Kong” was not the first thing I thought of, and I’m an African-American woman. I just saw it as another picture on a magazine cover. What my question is: Why is this the first time a black man was put on the cover?
Tashira Murray, 35, Roseland
Mission accomplished
As a person who has worked for and/or consulted major brand shoe companies (inner-city marketing) for the past 20-plus years, and can absolutely tell you that Vogue not only knew what they were doing when they shot this cover — of the black James handling the white star light in his hand with his mouth wide open to attack [for] her protection — they counted on the publicity — good or bad — just ask the bean counters at Vogue and the buzz it has created, and got RedEye’s coverage for free. Hmmm mm, was it worth it. … Yeah, right.
Pearl Jackson, 42, Bronzeville
