Barack Obama, Love Across the Color Line and Political Dirty Tricks
By David Rosen
"For four hundred years, people of different backgrounds like Obama's parents crossed the sexual color line. Some of their experiences were motivated by mutual desire and love, others driven by rape and sexual conquest; some out of a transient commercial exchange, others resulting in life-long marriages. America suffers from a kind of sexual schizophrenia and interracial sex most acutely reveals this mania.
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Barack Obama is not alone among a growing list of celebrity off-springs of mixed couples. Many are well known and come from all parts of the U.S. culture industry. From sports, baseball player Derek Jeter, basketball player Jason Kidd and golf champion Tiger Woods; from music, Paula Abdul, Joan Baez, Cher, Jimi Hendrix, Prince and Tina Turner; from movies, Halle Berry, Martin and Charlie Sheen, and Raquel Welch; and from fashion, Naomi Campbell. Many more live ordinary lives outside the celebrity spotlight.
The growing number of mixed celebrity couples and marriages further normalizes interracial intimacies. From Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, former defense secretary William Cohen and former senator Carol Moseley Braun to Tiger Woods, Robert De Niro, and David Bowie and Iman, interracial marriage for many is no longer a social stigma or something they are ashamed of."
http://www.counterpunch.org/rosen02272008.html
By David Rosen
"For four hundred years, people of different backgrounds like Obama's parents crossed the sexual color line. Some of their experiences were motivated by mutual desire and love, others driven by rape and sexual conquest; some out of a transient commercial exchange, others resulting in life-long marriages. America suffers from a kind of sexual schizophrenia and interracial sex most acutely reveals this mania.
* * *
Barack Obama is not alone among a growing list of celebrity off-springs of mixed couples. Many are well known and come from all parts of the U.S. culture industry. From sports, baseball player Derek Jeter, basketball player Jason Kidd and golf champion Tiger Woods; from music, Paula Abdul, Joan Baez, Cher, Jimi Hendrix, Prince and Tina Turner; from movies, Halle Berry, Martin and Charlie Sheen, and Raquel Welch; and from fashion, Naomi Campbell. Many more live ordinary lives outside the celebrity spotlight.
The growing number of mixed celebrity couples and marriages further normalizes interracial intimacies. From Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, former defense secretary William Cohen and former senator Carol Moseley Braun to Tiger Woods, Robert De Niro, and David Bowie and Iman, interracial marriage for many is no longer a social stigma or something they are ashamed of."
http://www.counterpunch.org/rosen02272008.html