But some readers more familiar with Shakey's plays may suggest a lesser known Aaron, the villainous Moor from Titus Andronicus. Aaron is a black guy who torments, well, just about everyone. He’s a freed prisoner of war, the lover and consigliere of Tamora, the Goth queen who marries the Emperor Saturninus. Aaron’s got power, swag, riches, and hot jewel draped babes to lay. And yet.....he’s unsatisfied. Material success is not what matters to him.
He despises the whites, foes and allies alike, and he’s driven by a compulsion to destroy their society. Unlike in the case of Richie III, Shakey never offers a glimpse into what makes Aaron tick. No monologue or soliloquy about wrongs done to him in the past or evils perpetrated by whites that made him the monster he is. But Aaron is very defensive about his race; he defiantly throws it in the face of other characters.
But throughout the entire course of the play, no one oppresses him specifically because of his race. Indeed, his race does not hinder his estimable success. He's living the high life as a black man basking in luxury among whites....respected, feared, obeyed by those in power, and yet everything he does is geared toward punishing those who elevated him and destabilizing the society that allowed him to achieve influence. And you just want to say to the guy.....what the fuck is your problem man?
The sweet Tamora asks that very question:
My lovely Aaron, wherefore look’st thou sad,When every thing doth make a gleeful boast?
Aaron’s reply?
Vengeance is in my heart, death in my hand,Blood and revenge are hammering in my head.
But why? Why the anger and hatred? By not answering that question, Shakey has inadvertently given us the most relevant 21st-century black character of any playwright in history.
A character living in a society in which he is afforded all possible opportunities while, even as he takes advantage of those opportunities, he harbors nothing but hostility toward the majority population, even if he can point to no specific reason why they deserve such enmity. His very identity is based upon hatred of whites.
There’s no specific wrong that’s being avenged or injury that served as a catalyst for the rage. There’s just an angry black man who looks gift horses in the mouth and yanks their teeth for pleasure. A black man who finds more satisfaction in being at war than he does from achieving success.
A black man who feels entitled to that war, even if he cannot name a single concrete reason why he personally should be.
Behold the black New York Times and Washington Post and MSNBC journalists. The black Biden administration officials and the black Hollywood producers. The black athletes and academics, all who live lives that would make 98% of people on earth green with envy, yet who seem to find fulfillment only in anti-white, anti-West rage.
Vengeance is in my heart, death in my hand,
Blood and revenge are hammering in my head.
If you could hear the innermost thoughts of someone like the NYT’s 1619 project author Nikole Hannah-Jones, or that vile media pustule Joy Reid, that’s exactly what would be playing on a loop.
*Note - Of course, the slobbering "Woke" academics are now injecting the "Critical Race Theory" into classic works such as Shakey's plays, and read what was not there until they put it there: "We have this Black character, Aaron, who is… pretty much any negative stereotype you can think of that relates to the Black identity, he embodies it. So, we’re talking about hypersexuality is embedded in his character. Evil is embedded in his character. Violence, of course, is embedded in his character. He even talks at one point about how blood and revenge are hammering in his brain."
[Excerpts from David Cole @ Taki Mag]
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