Obvious Racism

http://harryallen.info/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/lebron_as_brute2.jpg

In this image it compares an old army add showing a large ape taking a white women in his arms clearly against her will acompanied by the excerpt "Stop This Brute". The Lebron James image is very similiar except the ape is replaced with Lebron and there is no excerpt, however the images are strikingly similiar even tho they are at least 50 years apart.
The images obviously promote the idea of the dangerouse, sex crazed black male which was engrained in our society since the times of slavery. They also make no attempt to hide the comparison of Lebron to an ape, which is also a historicaly grounded racial slur. The images argue that black is wild, uncivilized, possibly even dangerouse, while arguing the inocence of white women and that they are in need of protection. In essence the image is not only arguing a certain view of race but also a view of gender; it argues taht women are weak and need the protection of society.
When i saw this image i was stunned at first because of how similiar the two images were. I was completely suprised that they would use a racially and gender motivated image like this for the cover of a magazine, after all i thought we had moved away from such public displays of racism before i was born.
Examining the politics of representation working within this image it is not hard to see the mesage. First, it is reinforcing the historical stereotypes that have plagued black men since the time of slavery. It is simutaneosly labeling black men as wild/uncivilized which implys the idea of the normal white body. And finally it solidifies the notion that women are helpless and in need of pertection.