He is dressed in Arab garb – the pantaloons, the curved scimitar, the funny shoes. Very interesting in light of the cartoon portraying Obama as a Muslim (equals Arab of course in the essentialist mind – see the head dress and the picture of Ben Laden on the wall).

Leo Africanus was a great Arab historian and traveler who went to Rome, “converted” for a while, and possibly sparked the character of Othello. 19th century readers would have easily recognized “Abraham Africanus” as a satire on Leo. Leo Africanus however went back to the Arab world and “turned” again, playing to that Euro/White fear that those wily dark Muslims who “pass” or take on our ways are actually treacherous and liable to cheat us. People have published scholarly books on the fear in English literature of the “turning” Moor.

http://www.amazon.com/Turning-Turk-Multicultura...

Looks like the fear of Obama's foreign, Muslim and African connections has deep roots in European-American culture.

Oh and p.s., Lady Diana Spencer, mother of the heir to the British crown, was descended from an Indian woman who was mistress of a British colonial in India. The half-Indian daughter was brought to Scotland, raised among white people, and eventually married a white man – in the early 19th century.

This topic is fascinating to me as well.

Anatole Broyard, 1920-1990, NYT Literary Critic,

Carol Channing, b. 1921, singer and actress

J. Edgar Hoover, 1895-1972, FBI, first director

As you can see, this topic fascinates me. Whether someone 'grew up' Black and then 'passed' or had black folk just one generation removed but didn't 'look' it and therefore did not 'embraced' it — anyway you swing it, it's just fascinating to me for some reason.

My brown skin and happy-to-be-nappy hair never gave me any option in this country to be anything other than who I am. So, it really never occurred to me that people could “choose” to be someone else. Fascinating…

And…

Find yourself a picture of Eisenhower's mother.

Dare ya.

Talk about “Undercover Brothas”…