-By Warner Todd Huston
Everything is racist these days. Even the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, apparently. At least that is the latest tempest in a teapot being stirred by our busy race merchants.
The website Jezebel is the latest to stir the pot claiming that because SI used locations on all seven continents and featured people in native garb as a back drop for its swimsuit models, why the magazine must be racist.
The photos shot in Spain featured matadors. In China the model was photographed surrounded by young girls in traditional Chinese garb. In another shot in China an older man in a bamboo cooley hat made ready to pole-push a homemade raft as the model sat alluringly by. In Namibia a white model was shown next to a black man in traditional garb.
Was it highlighting beauty and celebrating diversity? Or was it just stereotyping? Whatever its intent, with its “diverse” photos, SI can’t seem to win.
The website claimed it was all about race, saying, “using people of color as background or extras is… very distasteful.”
The Namibia shoot was particularly galling, it appears.
“But even more upsetting are the shots taken in Namibia, in which a black man is a prop,” Jezebel complained.
Imagine, showing a black man in Namibia, Africa! Why the impertinence of Sports Illustrated.
What won’t the race merchants warp to suit their purposes?
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
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