October 3, 2007

"I knew this was no fetish-laden intrigue with a woman of another race, but a gift from God."

Clarence Thomas describes his wife. (Page 182 of "My Grandfather's Son.") This is, I think, the only reference to sex in the first 200 pages of the book.

Fetish-laden intrigue. Presumably, that refers to other people's interracial relationships. His sexual attraction comes from God.

God also helps him get his mortgage loan approved on page 190.

ADDED: More divine intervention at page 196:
They asked whether I wanted to be a judge. The question took me by surprise, and I said I wasn't sure. My indecision was no pose: I really didn't know what to do...

[T]hey asked if I'd be willing to fill out the forms... I thought it might be the best course of action to let the FBI start investigating me and see where things went from there. "Maybe this is God's way of telling me what to do," I said.

12 comments:

Ron said...

Hitchens would probably say that if there were a God, he'd have gotten a loan with no points!

Anonymous said...

How can he be sure her intrigue with him wasn't fetish-laden? God works in mysterious ways- maybe even through fetish.

Ralph L said...

The Beltway Bandit I worked for 20 years ago had about 40 employees and 5 interracial marriages (and many unmarried). I've always wondered if it was just coincidence, and how it could be otherwise. So much for the ultraconservative Military Industrial Complex.

Trooper York said...

Judge Roy Bean: [Bean apologizes to the marshals' wives] I understand you have taken exception to my calling you whores. I'm sorry. I apologize. I ask you to note that I did not call you callous-ass strumpets, fornicatresses, or low-born gutter sluts. But I did say "whores." No escaping that. And for that slip of the tongue, I apologize.
(The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean 1972)

Joe said...

Fetish-laden intrigue. Presumably, that refers to other people's interracial relationships.

No, this refers to the stereotype that black men having a relationship with white women is fulfilling a sexual fantasy and nothing more. (That is, that there is something fetish-laden with interracial sexual relationships.)

(White men who have relationships with Asian women face a similar stereotype.)

The Counterfactualist said...

Fetish-laden intrigue. Presumably, that refers to other people's interracial relationships.

Damn, Joe beat me to it.

Too many jims said...

"I knew this was no fetish-laden intrigue with a woman of another race, but a gift from God."

How did he know this. Did he previously have fetish-laden intrigue with a woman of another race but this was different. (I am not reading the book now so maybe there is other context which precludes this reading.)

Ann Althouse said...

He writes that he had his share of relationships with women between his two marriages, and while he doesn't say that the woman he married was his only relationship with a white woman, he does say that when he met her he initially "had no inclination to date outside my race."

Trooper York said...

Sheila Kingston: But isn't there a happy medium. You know, like, I tie you up one night, you tie me up the next night?
(Exit to Eden 1994)
(Rosie O’Donnell’s second most believable role)

Trumpit said...

I'll have to try that line, "Baby, you're a gift from God." the next time I'm on a date. Or maybe,"Baby, this ain't no fetish-laden intrigue I got fur ya." Or if she's kinky, "Baby, I got a burning fetish-intrigue fur ya!" It all depends on what will work with a particular girl at a given moment. Different strokes for different folks. What Long Dong Silver would say it what really intrigues me.

Trooper York said...

Long Dong Silver: Hello, I'm the plumber baby, and I here to lay some pipe.
(Blue Vanities 53,produced in 1986
released in 1988)

blake said...

Anita: The story is ludicrous. You can imagine where it goes from here.
Clarence: He fixes the plumbing?

[with apologies to The Big Lebowski]