Is Essence Magazine’s ‘Think Like A Man Too’ Cover Racist?

This month Essence celebrated the sequel to Will Packer’s “Think Like A Man” film by offering up dual covers, one for the female co-stars and another featuring the male co-stars. Both covers are actually very well done and literally up to about a few minutes ago I hadn’t noticed one thing, two of the film’s main characters were excluded. Was it because they weren’t black?

Visibly missing from the men’s cover are Think Like A Man 1 & 2 stars Jerry Ferrara & Gary Owen. If you’ve seen the first film, you know that both characters are just as much stars in the film as their black counterparts. In fact, Ferrara’s “wife” in the film is Gabrielle Union and she was featured on women’s cover. Gary has been heavy in black culture for some time, once hosting BET’s Comic View. He even has a black wife from Compton (in real life). Neither Jerry no Gary were featured on the cover nor included on the spread inside the mag. It begs to question, does the exclusion of the non-black characters seem a bit racist to you?

Granted, Essence is a magazine geared towards middle aged black women but then again, Jerry and Gary are very much stars of the film too. In fact, Gary Owen is married to a black woman and I’ve had a crush on Jerry Ferrara since he was chubby ‘Turtle’ on Entourage. I, for one, felt that the exclusion of them (in this case) was highly unnecessary given that they weren’t just some 15 minute spot in the movie. They were real stars. If it were the other way around, I know that we as black people would definitely have felt excluded and some of us would be drafting up a petition on change.org right now. 

While I don’t feel the cover is racist, I do feel that it was a misstep to not include the two stars of the film. If not on the cover, at least in the spread within the magazine. Apparently I’m not the only black person who felt like the ball was dropped, either. FarrahGray.com collected tweets from several non-white readers who shared similar sentiments.

“I wouldn’t expect the two white actors to be on the cover if they didn’t have leading roles, but at least Jerry should have been included, as he had the same screen time as the others and his role was just as important.”

“Just because this is a ‘black’ magazine, intentionally disregarding the two white men from the movie is reckless. It’s 2014, Essence. It is ok to be inclusive of other races on the front cover, not just showing different shades of black #disappointed”

“Soooo…they just gonna leave Jerry Ferara and Gary Owen out?!?! Oh ok”

“Won’t be supporting this issue. (Would have) been a great cover shoot had all male cast members been represented. #diversity & #inclusion should apply across the board, not just when it pertains to ‘minorities’”

“They should have included Jerry and Gary…it’s only fair. They are in the movie too. If it was reversed and the only two black stars in a summer hit movie weremissing from a magazine cover, we would kick up a big stink about it.”

Gary Owen shared the cover on his Instagram and seems to have taken it in stride.

So what do you think? As a race who fights for equality, should we have made an effort to do the same?