Do you think he actually thinks about strangling her? Is Michelle Obama Desdemona? Othello pulled all the right strings through virile stories of war and danger which Desdemona swallowed with “a greedy ear.” She implied that she wanted to marry a type like Othello and also that she wishes she was a man like him. And how does he respond to her loyalty: physical and verbal abuse and trying to out her as a prostitute in public; not in politically correct Washington; but by the end of Shakespeare’s play the issue of race, gender and sex turns tawdry and tragic indeed; She is whittled down to cowing passivity before Othello finally murders her and even as she is dying she blames but herself for the emotional and physical beatings she has endured.
Harold Bloom, with all his wily expertise claimed that poor Desdemona died a virgin, that the relation was never consummated and that the sexual issue is at the core of the play. We don’t know much about Obama, the man being a mystery other than being bound up in his magic incantations of hope and change, but David Maraniss’s book on him certainly delves into the by-ways and backwaters of the Obama psychic swamp, at least more than cheerleader in drag Michael Lewis’s Obama’s Way…
—Another friend, Beenu Mahmood, recalled that Obama was especially fond of Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man. Mahmmod told Marannis that about three months, Obama carried the book with him wherever he went. The novel centers on a black man who struggles to belong to an America that perpetually overlooks his insight and talents. “It was a period during which Barack was struggling deeply within himself to attain his own racial identity, and Invisible Man became a prism for his self-reflection,” Marannis writes. —Read More:http://racerelations.about.com/od/interracialrelationships/a/What-About-Obamas-Letters-To-Girlfriend-Say-About-Race.htm
All hands to the rescue. All hands on deck. Women and chidren first. Women
And chidren first.
Cold feet in the bedroom. Cold moor in the bed. I’ve seen the starship
Rollin’ in. I wanna talk instead. About the way that you treat me and the
Round in the wheel. How you made a reservation for you’re changing the way.
So how can I love you, when you make me feel, like a hmm and a weasel at
The end of a day. End of conversation.
On this occasion. I have no reservation. It’s saying, she’s the power
Behind the throne. She’s the power behind the throne. She’s the power
Behind the throne. She’s the power behind the throne. She’s the power…
Behind the throne.
All hands to the rescue. All hands on deck. I’m in need if assistence. I’m
Going down with the wreck. I can’t sleep with the captain. Can’t sleep with
The crew. I always mix with the windcraft. That I used to do.
She should be home, yet she’s out of the town. So I’m stuck in the
Appartment, with the kids all day. And if I was an animal they’d brought me
Down. And I just can’t go on living this way. End of conversation.
On this occasion. I have no reservation. It’s saying, she’s the power
Behind the throne. She’s the power behind the throne. She’s the power
Behind the throne. She’s the power behind the throne. She’s the power…
Behind the throne.
She’s the power behind the throne. She’s the power behind the throne. She’s
The power behind the throne. She’s the power… behind the throne.
A very bosy woman. A real bosy woman. A bosy woman.( Godley and Creme, Power Behind the Throne)
What did Michelle Obama whisper in the President’s ear? ….If there is truth in the belief that Othello thinks he polluted Desdemona, and transformed her into a whore, it would, by extension, point the issue of Othello internalizing the racism he crosses in Shakespeare’s play….
ADDENDUM:
(see link at end)…Genevieve Cook remembers she and Obama discussing racial issues frequently. She told Marannis that he sought belonging in the black community. However, his upbringing by a white mother in places as far removed from black America as Hawaii and Indonesia made that challenging. According to Marannis, Obama sometimes felt like an impostor in the black community because he looked black but felt white. “There was hardly a black bone in his body,” Obama reportedly told Cook. Obama’s struggle with his racial identity led Cook to the realization that he need to immerse himself in the black community and find a black mater. Cook even kept thinking that she was far from Obama’s ideal woman. She wrote in her diary, “I can’t help thinking that what he would really want, be powerfully drawn to, was a woman, very strong, very upright, a fighter, a laugher, well—experienced—a black woman I keep seeing her as.” Read More:http://racerelations.about.com/od/interracialrelationships/a/What-About-Obamas-Letters-To-Girlfriend-Say-About-Race.htm
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