fred astaire was a guest at a state dinner. like every other american woman who was ever seen a movie, i was dying to dance with them. as a trained dancer, i knew i could keep up. after dinner, the guests were dancing to the music of the marine corps band. i got up my nerve and i marched up to him and i asked him to join me on the dance floor. he was very charming, and explained that he really wasn't much of a ballroom dancer. he only danced to carefully choreographed numbers. i think he was trying to tell me, i won't dance, don't ask me. i did not take the hint. [laughter] i coaxed him out on the dance floor and we started, never missing a step. my ego was busting at the seams. my husband approached. he explained that our guest of honor was leaving. i know my husband has seen all the same movies that i have. apparently, he did not understand the full impact of the latest do a vote was having none me. reluctantly, i excused myself and my husband left me off for us to say our goodbyes. when i rushed back to claim my partner, fre

fred astaire was a guest at a state dinner, and like every other american woman who has ever seen and astaire/rogers movie, i was dying to dance with him. [laughter] as a trained dancer, i knew i could keep up. so after dinner, guests were dancing to the music of the marine corps band. i got up my nerve and marched over to mr. astaire using my prerogative as first lady, and i asked him to join me on the dance floor. he was very charming, but he explained he really was not much of a ballroom dancer, and that he only danced to carefully choreographed numbers. [laughter] i think he was trying to tell me, "i will dance. dance.sk me -- "i won't don't ask me." [laughter] i would not take the hint. finally, a guided him on to the dance floor, and we started gliding around to the music. never missing a step, and my ego was busting at the seams. my husband approached, tapped mr. astaire on the shoulder and explained that our guest of honor was leading. i know my husband has seen all the same fred astaire/ginger rogers movies that i have, but apparently he did not understand the full impact of

fred astaire was a guest at a state dinner. like every other american woman who was ever seen a movie, i was dying to dance with them. as a trained dancer, i knew i could keep up. after dinner, the guests were dancing to the music of the marine corps band. i got up my nerve and i marched and i asked him to join me on the dance floor. he was very charming, and explained that he really wasn't much of a ballroom dancer. he only danced to carefully choreographed numbers. i think he was trying to tell me, i won't dance, don't ask me. i did not take the hand. -- hint. i coaxed him out on the dance floor and we started, never missing a step. my ego was busting at the seams. .y husband approached grea he explained that our guest of honor was leaving. i know my husband has seen all the same movies that i have. apparently, he did not understand the full impact of the latest do a vote was having none me. reluctantly, i excused myself and my husband left me off for us to say our goodbyes. when i rushed back to claim my partner, fred had be

al stanley covel around his reading of a fred astaire movie.so unlike the du bois book, it's less an engagement with an attempt to reconstruct the thought of a particular thinker, it's, again, more -- it has more to do with race and contemporary cultural representations of race. >> who in your view, if anyone, is similar to du bois today? >> you know, i think that there probably is no one who is really similar to du bois today. i think that, i think -- what i would cay, i guess what i would want to say about that is even asking the question that way kind of suggests that we're looking for one person who might represent the current tendency of african-american political thought. but i don't think that there is one person. i'm not even sure there was just one person when du bois was writing. as you pointed out earlier, du bois was engaged with booker t. washington and a number of ores. i think today you find, and it's interesting, you find a great deal of diversity of opinion among african-american individuals about everything that's going on. no