Lust:Caution - cinema we can believe in

Has anybody seen Ang Lee's "Lust:Caution"? There is a scene
near the end of the movie (which is 157 minutes long and as
deadly as paint drying until folks start taking their clothes off
about three quarters of the way through) where lead actor
(Tony Leung Chiu Wai)looks toward the camera oozing love
for his consort (Wei Tang) where he looks like a doppleganger
for Barack Hussein Obama. I kid you not - if Michelle and Barack
ever sit down to watch it together, Brother President gonna get
SLAPPED - they look like they was separated at birth. Jug ears,
slicked back waves in the hair, and those almond shaped eyes
filled with compassion.

Tony Leung Chiu Wai is a huge star in Asia and that got me thinking.
There is probably an Obama doppleganger in every country. Which
makes Mr. Obama a universal archtype - one that is visually em-
braced around the world.

Freelance Trash Talkers

The proliferation of rabid conservative trash talk against
First Lady Michelle Obama would be funny if it wasn't so
mean-spirited, unwarranted and just plain sad. Right

wing pundit Burt Prelutsky at Townhall.com is so deeply
perturbed by the fact that "everytime (he) turns around,

there she (this exceptionally poised and photogenic woman)
is on a magazine cover" that he just has enough saliva to
spat "The burning question in my circle is: if the First Family
gets a female dog, will she be the First Bitch or will she have
to settle for second place?" Oh, no, he didn't!

Prelutsky's seems oblivious to the fact that magazine editors
put certain people on magazine covers because they sell
magazines. There is no altruism in that business. If Mrs.
Obama is on so many magazine covers it is because she
is moving copies. If she wasn't, somebody else would be
on those covers. Which makes spittle-mouthed Prelutsky's
next statement even more ridiculous:"Naturally, the
left-wing media is now trying to convince us that this
James Brown-look-alike has all the allure, glamour and

fashion sense of Jackie Kennedy." Yep, that must be
the case except for the inconvenient fact that anything
almost wholly owned by the likes of Rupert Murdock,
Summer Redstone, GE and the Disney Corporation is
anything BUT left-wing.

Prelutsky believes in respecting the Office of First Lady but
does not hesitate to disparage First Lady Obama because she
"attended the same racist church as her hubby for 20 years."
As Dana Carvey's "Church Lady" would say, "How convenient!"

But let's put that aside for a moment and consider
right-wing radio host and commentator, Tammy Bruce,

who had the temerity to call Michelle Obama "trash" in
reaction to the First Lady's visit to a Washington D.C.
public high school. Inspiring inner city students to speak
the "King's English" and to strive for excellence made
the First Lady "trash." Really?

I said earlier this would all be funny if it wasn't so sad. And it

is sad because this is not the first time in my life I have seen
the wife of a popular President vilified by a rabid press and
largely impotent opposition after a major sea-change in the
national political climate.

It was nearly thirty years ago and that woman was Nancy
Reagan, a refined and graceful woman who suddenly morphed
into the Wicked Witch of the West after her enormously
popular husband was elected President in 1980.

There is another simularily between the Obamas and the
Reagans: they are couples where both parties clearly
adore one another. So how do political scoundrels hurt
an enormously popular President? By attacking the
person nearest and dearest to his heart.

Be Real Black for Me

I had an ah-ha! moment this weekend while reading a Sean Penn interview in Rolling Stone Magazine. Penn quoted Cleve Jones, the former lover of Harvey Milk, as stating that liberal heterosexuals think the only difference between them and homosexuals is the sex while, in fact, the only thing heterosexuals and homosexuals have in common is the sex. I believe the same thing can be said about white Americans and black Americans: the only thing we have in common is the sex.

This said, I applaud President and Mrs. Obama for continuing to be their "natural black selves." I have fought for nearly a quarter century on the battleground of workplace discrimination. I have seen black people play the corporate game every which way there is and I have come to the conclusion that this is the only course of action that works is to retain your essential black selves - no matter now pervasive the pressure is to co-op one's self.

I adore that Michelle defiantly continues to show off her well-toned arms - heck, she worked hard for them and what woman should be denied the pleasure of showing off what she considers here best parts? - further, I love that the Obamas blithely ride the fine line between propriety and parody by both ignoring and embracing the stereotype of black folks cluelessly taking over and putting a children's play area behind the Oval Office, replacing a tennis court with a basketball court and having barbeques on the south lawn.

Hosanna Obamas!