The Improper, February 14, 2010
More than 70 percent of professional athletes are African American, but you wouldn’t know it by reading the latest issue of Sport’s Illustrated’s much ballyhooed swimsuit issue.
The 184-page issue, the magazine’s most profitable, boasts 18 models, but only two are African American and you won’t see them until page 140.
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Sports Illustrated has been publishing the swimsuit issue continuously since 1964, and Tyra Banks has been the only African American model to grace the cover. She first appeared in 1996, but shared the cover with model Valeria Mazza, who is white.
No two models since then have shared a cover. All have been white. Only one other issue, 1994’s, featured multiple models. Kathy Ireland, Elle MacPherson and Rachel Hunter appeared together.
Tyra repeated on the cover solo in 1997, but the photo caused a controversy because of allegations that Banks’ hips were photoshopped to make her look slimmer.
In this year’s issue, Jessica White, 26, is one of two African American models. She’s an industry veteran, who was signed, at 16, by the IMG agency and has represented such brands as CoverGirl, Chloé and Gap.
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Although she’s as much a veteran as Decker and Refaeli she’s only featured in three of 140 photos.
White is joined by Damaris Lewis, 19, who appears on page 178.
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This year, the magazine introduces six new “rookies” to the issue. None are African American. Sonia Dara, who is Indian, is the only minority. She’s also a Harvard student.
Some models appear in ads and on table of content pages early in the magazine, but the rookies lead off the photo feature starting on page 41. The lead model, Christine Teigen is part Thai and part Norwegian.
Decker’s spread begins on page 53 followed by a double page photo of Refaeli on page 55.
African-American models like Iman and Naomi Campbell broke through the race barrier long ago in fashion, but the under representation of minorities in modeling continues to be a contentious issue to this day.
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Since Sports Illustrated covers an “industry” that makes its living off of black athletes, you would think it would go out of its way to make sure its best-selling issue was more representative.
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Original article
(Posted on February 16, 2010)
Comments
They must be reading the wrong issue. Every other issue of SI is almost nothing more than pictorial glorification/idolization/worship of young black adults who are physically fit. The swimsuit issue is the only one where you see mostly white people, and even then, I think there are taboo miscegenationist motives behind that.
Irony Alert!!
“Since Sports Illustrated covers an “industry” that makes its living off of black athletes…” What a pretentious statement, makes me want to puke. I guess sports coverage and perhaps sports all together would dry up and blow away if not for “black athletes”
Since Sports Illustrated covers an “industry” that makes its living off of black athletes, you would think it would go out of its way to make sure its best-selling issue was more representative.
Not true. SI makes its living off of white customers. And since whites are discrimiated against in professional sports it’s hypocritical to argue blacks are discriminated against by SI. Particularly so since blacks aren’t even under represented in the swimsuit issue. The article lists 2 out of the 18 models as being black. That’s 11% as compared to 12% of the population. The person who wrote that article is just another racial crybaby.
While this article on ‘racial barriers’ is seen as an ‘important issue’, a good number of other magazines in the country are devoted specifically to race, and they proudly work to be a racist as possible. They feature Tyra Banks also.
The opening sentence is baloney: 70% of pro athletes are black?
Check out the Winter Olympics, not to mention hockey, mma, boxing, tennis, golf, cycling, auto racing, etc.
Fill the magazines with blacks then.
Maybe the problem is that very few blacks, male or female, even own a swimsuit . Swimming’s just not their thing: Africans generally enjoy water about as much as cats do.
All joking aside… as other posters have already noted, that opening statement that “More than 70 percent of professional athletes are African American” is questionable at best. Regardless of whether it is accurate (and I for one doubt that it is), it is definitely unsubstantiated : no citation is provided. So how exactly did “The Improper” (whomever or whatever that might be) arrive at this remarkable figure? Did that statistic include pro tennis and pro golf? How about the NHL? If blacks are overrepresented in certain leagues (NBA, NFL), there are several vast areas of pro sport where they are clearly underrepresented — or, as in hockey, virtually nonexistent.
Or don’t facts matter when you feel you have racial righteousness on your side?
Simply put, black/women of color turm me off in every way possible. And the fact is, white women are simply more attractive.
So I wouldn’t bother with any magazine that has more than a minimum of black/women of color in it. I’ll ignore the few in SI.
Same with sports. White guys need to dump black-dominated sports. I did, long ago. I don’t miss watching those thugs run around, at all. We all have better things to do.
More than 70 percent of professional athletes are African American
Assuming this is true, at least for the three most widely covered sports of football, baseball and basketball, isn’t this an injustice in itself? Why should blacks, who are 12% of the population, hold 70% of the most lucrative positions in sports? Are they really that much better, or is there a campaign of discrimination against whites in these sports? Why isn’t this issue ever covered? Instead, they whine about the racial percentage of models in Sports Illustrated? Gimme a break!
How about a Black Swim Suit issue?
I have decided to only look at hockey and baseball so I dropped SI who cares any more ps i was going to watch the nba all star game NO WHITES
I used to buy a few swimsuit calendars every year for my home office and weight room, but I got very tired of seeing black models on these calendars, and my co-workers always asked me to cover the photos in which black models appeared.
Let us not place all the blame on blacks, because the sports cult is mostly the fault of whites. Take USC football, perhaps the strongest Caste system bastion in all the land, and yet the cheerleaders for the team are as white as the driven snow. The sickness lies in the souls and minds of the white men who perepetrate such vile institutions.
The fact that 70% of players are black, should be good enough. But now, it has to be black models too. I say fine, give it to them. Men sitting around drooling over white women isn’t exactly a goal we want to attain. White women need to be family oriented, and if they desire, career oriented. They shouldn’t be interested in shaking their lady lumps because they’re momentarily brainwashed by the latest pop/hip hop song.
This article is also wrong factually.
Beyonce was on the cover for the 2007 edition:
http://thebosh.com/archives/upload/2007/02/beyonce%20sports.jpg
Well I have been told, and it is likely true, that Blacks seem to jump little higher and run a bit faster than everyone else. So they are the majority in sports were that is important. And white women are far more than just a bit better looking than black women, or any other race’s women, if I must really tell the truth. So they make up the vast majority of models.
Just ask any black man about that, they seem to agree me.
First of all, don’t blacks have their own magazines that seek to display the beauty of black women? Can’t they have their own swimsuit issues where black women dominate the photos? Why do they constantly need to be included in our world and incessantly seek validation and recognition from us? Haven’t black women been crowned Miss America several times?
In other words, they don’t need to be “included” in every white institution, magazine, film, book, etc. Blacks ought to heed the advice of black nationalists and create their own institutions separate from whites. Same thing for science fiction films (“not enough blacks in Star Wars!”) and the media. I’m not saying black women are ugly (there are actually attractive black women, believe it or not) or that there shouldn’t be any in the SI Swimsuit Issue, but the constant demands for more diversity irritate me.
At #14, I believe it’s already too late to get non-white men (mainly black men) to stop drooling over white women! A proper solution would be to instill in white women a respect for themselves, their bodies, and white men. If white women are successful, harbor self-respect, and respect white men, there won’t be as many promiscuous white women seeking men like Kobe Bryant (though I guess him being a rich athlete on top of being black also played a factor). Speaking of SI and sports, why are so many black athletes/coaches (Kobe Bryant, Ray Allen, Doc Rivers, etc) into non-black women? No wonder so many black women oppose interracial relationships!
Here’s my question. How do we discern which athlete is African American (AA) and which ones are Black? There is a big difference. I spoke with my neighbor who is African American and she is insulted by all the Blacks calling themselves AA due to their inappropriate behavior and the negatives being thrust on AA people. She states “they need to make up their minds, if they have one, and don’t call themselves AA if they can’t prove it”. She believes the figures mentioned in this article are way off because there is no breakdown between Blacks and AA. Can somebody redo the math and get back to us? BTW, are the swimsuit models Black or African American?
