THERE IS SOMETHING ABOUT THIS PICTURE THAT MAKES ME FEEL JUST A LITTLE BIT AWKWARD. IT REMINDS ME OF KING KONG. I FIND IT RACIST. IN THE MOVIE INGLORIOUS BASTARDS THEY PLAY THE “GUESS WHO I AM GAME.” YOU PUT THE NAME OF SOMEONE FAMOUS ON YOUR FOREHEAD AND THEN YOU ASK QUESTIONS ABOUT WHO IT MIGHT BE UNTIL YOU GUESS. WELL, ONE CHARACTER HAD KING KONG ON HIS FOREHEAD AND AFTER FINDING OUT HE HAD BEEN BROUGHT FROM AN EXOTIC LAND, ON A BOAT, CHAINED, AND THEN PURSUED A WHITE WOMAN IN THE NEW WORLD HE THOUGHT HE WAS THE AFRICAN SLAVE, WHILE IN FACT, HE WAS KING KONG.

THIS MOTIF, THIS PORTRAYAL OF AFRICAN MEN CAN BE SEEN ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE ACTUAL DAYS OF COLONIZATION. THE BLACK MAN WAS SEEN AS  A RAPIST, A THREAT TO THE WHITE MAN AND A HAZARD TO THE WHITE WOMAN. THIS HAS BECOME SOMEWHAT NORMALIZED IN OUR SOCIETY BUT STILL ERUPTS EVERY NOW AND THEN LIKE IN THIS DAVID LACHAPPELE PHOTO. NOW, TO HIS DEFENSE I AM FAIRLY CERTAIN HE IS DOING THIS ON PURPOSE.

HOWEVER, THE IMAGE IS POWERFUL. THE DAMSEL IS AN OVERLY PHOTOSHOPPED SOMEWHAT DISFIGURED LADY GAGA. HER BODY SEEMS ELONGATED AND HER BOOB SEEMS FAKE. THE WHOLE THING IS AN EXAGERRATION. KANYE’S EYES LOOK ABSOLUTELY INSANE. THEY ARE IN SOME KIND OF EXOTIC SETTING. AT FIRST GLANCE, I THOUGHT KANYE WAS SOME KIND OF RANGER OUTDOORSY MAN AND THEN REALIZED HE WAS DRESSED SOMEWHAT SAVAGELY.

I DONT THINK THIS PICTURE IS DONE IN GOOD TASTE. I THINK IN AN ATTEMPT TO BE CONTROVERSIAL THEY HAVE REINFORCED YEARS OF RACISM AND STEREOTYPICAL WHITE WOMAN/BLACK MAN BEHAVIOR. THE AVERAGE EYE WON’T CATCH THE SUBTLETIES OF THE COMMENTARIES GOING ON IN THIS PICTURE.