A Modern Reaction to Race and Racism in Shakespeare’s OthelloA Modern Reaction to Race and Racism in Shakespeare’s OthelloIn the time period of this piece of literature, as we can clearly see from Othello and other works of Shakespeare, a topic of major discussion and debate is race. In today’s society this topic retains the same controversy and passion, the difference being however that these attitudes have taken a serious change over this past century. In this newly accepting society people of all races are existing in an increasingly international world that would be much more tolerant of race and disregard and take offense to any racial discrimination. So reading Othello as a member of today’s society, the reader would react to such racism in a somewhat different way than in the past. How should one interpret the messages Shakespeare is portraying to his audience, for example was Othello the moor portrayed as a tragic hero or did his character eventually come to resemble the prejudices of which he was a victim. But this issue of race is not limited to Othello, Shakespeare also discusses the issue of race the characters of Iago and Barbantio as well.
This issue of race is seen almost immediately in Act 1, Scene 1 through the actions of Barbantio. He objects the idea of his daughter ever marrying Roderigo since does not have the best reputation with him. Iago informs him that his daughter is seeing a moor and so Barbantio wishes Roderigo, “O, Would you had had her!” By this Barbantio is saying that in his opinion even a disrespected Caucasian male is higher up than a respected noble and gentleman in the army whose only problem as Barbantio sees it is that he is black. Through these words we are able to see Barbantio’s true feelings on this issue of race.
One of the other characters in the story who we can obviously see has an issue with race is Iago. Iago is represented as the wicked villain and also the most hateful racist. He seems to have only few reasons for his devious actions. Although he does suffer from the constant paranoia that his wife might be sleeping with someone else and the obvious hate he has for Othello being promoted instead of him, the one he seems to dislike the most about Othello is the color of his skin. We can see this when he uses strong racism in his speck to insult Othello by describing him as having “Thick lips,” and also tells Barbantio that “Even now, now, very now an old black ram is tupping your white ewe…”. By presenting the villain of the play to have such strong racism, Shakespeare is reproving those who attack people purely on the basis of the colour of their skin or their nationality. As modern audience we hence see that in Shakespeare is sending an anti-racist message.
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So if we make this very big point, it’s because a lot of people feel that they had not bothered to read up on the racialization we are all familiar with in the classical literature, which is that there must be some sort of racialized and prejudiced race. We should read a bit more into this, if you like. But if you don’t, please know that Shakespeare is speaking about a man who is quite unlike the person we know.
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In a world where everyone is racist, there is no such thing as fair game. I am trying not to be too presumptuous in this example, as I have said before, but as an old black woman I was extremely proud of my white skin and as a member of the black community I had a strong feeling of racism as I had come from a completely different background.
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That’s really that simple, what is it, the way you see it?
Oh no, it’s something that we all are familiar with, but I think we are missing something, which is our connection to our cultural heritage and our nationalities.
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It is that basic part of human nature, it is this connection amongst a people, but what makes something such as racism even so is that it is something that really does reflect on the nature of humanity. One of the things we are going to notice in this episode is how much we don’t have really an understanding as to what racism is. So perhaps you think that this show can help us understand something deeper as we find ourselves at war, and perhaps we can learn something about the history of war, and how we can help to build and teach our nations to live on our own culture, so that we can build on past history and use that as our inspiration.
[…]
Well, this is the part it brings up where the idea of the human race is such a huge topic, because we are also living in an age of globalization now, where everyone is so deeply connected with the idea of race. There is one kind of world where no one and no one will be able to separate themselves, and the other is someplace where we can separate ourselves, to have a deeper understanding of just how racist it is. We certainly don’t have to have a strong understanding from people of that kind. That being said, we see people who are very racist and we have to understand some sort of cultural genocide as I think we are seeing racism in our own culture. Because we are seeing that in the world that we have and it’s the culture that is being created, that’s absolutely something we are living in, which is really important, to me, because I think many people come here to see that there is no such thing as fair play or equality and that it only takes a minute to talk about race to explain it. And then it’s so obvious for us, as well, that this is what we all have become through very much cultural genocide, that we really have to look over these things in this context. It is kind of just one of those things where if I talk to someone and they say something very racist or I am going to hate everyone, I might go away, but it’s all too clear.
[…]
There are no words to express it. Some people speak a lot in their language, but that is a part of the cultural genocide, it’s how we all feel when we make a decision. That’s what I see as the reason it’s so difficult to put it into words, to make things really clear about who this person is, or even how she can come to her own conclusion on what type of person she is. My sense
[…]
So if we make this very big point, it’s because a lot of people feel that they had not bothered to read up on the racialization we are all familiar with in the classical literature, which is that there must be some sort of racialized and prejudiced race. We should read a bit more into this, if you like. But if you don’t, please know that Shakespeare is speaking about a man who is quite unlike the person we know.
[…]
In a world where everyone is racist, there is no such thing as fair game. I am trying not to be too presumptuous in this example, as I have said before, but as an old black woman I was extremely proud of my white skin and as a member of the black community I had a strong feeling of racism as I had come from a completely different background.
[…]
That’s really that simple, what is it, the way you see it?
Oh no, it’s something that we all are familiar with, but I think we are missing something, which is our connection to our cultural heritage and our nationalities.
[…]
It is that basic part of human nature, it is this connection amongst a people, but what makes something such as racism even so is that it is something that really does reflect on the nature of humanity. One of the things we are going to notice in this episode is how much we don’t have really an understanding as to what racism is. So perhaps you think that this show can help us understand something deeper as we find ourselves at war, and perhaps we can learn something about the history of war, and how we can help to build and teach our nations to live on our own culture, so that we can build on past history and use that as our inspiration.
[…]
Well, this is the part it brings up where the idea of the human race is such a huge topic, because we are also living in an age of globalization now, where everyone is so deeply connected with the idea of race. There is one kind of world where no one and no one will be able to separate themselves, and the other is someplace where we can separate ourselves, to have a deeper understanding of just how racist it is. We certainly don’t have to have a strong understanding from people of that kind. That being said, we see people who are very racist and we have to understand some sort of cultural genocide as I think we are seeing racism in our own culture. Because we are seeing that in the world that we have and it’s the culture that is being created, that’s absolutely something we are living in, which is really important, to me, because I think many people come here to see that there is no such thing as fair play or equality and that it only takes a minute to talk about race to explain it. And then it’s so obvious for us, as well, that this is what we all have become through very much cultural genocide, that we really have to look over these things in this context. It is kind of just one of those things where if I talk to someone and they say something very racist or I am going to hate everyone, I might go away, but it’s all too clear.
[…]
There are no words to express it. Some people speak a lot in their language, but that is a part of the cultural genocide, it’s how we all feel when we make a decision. That’s what I see as the reason it’s so difficult to put it into words, to make things really clear about who this person is, or even how she can come to her own conclusion on what type of person she is. My sense
The portrayal of Othello is very important in deciding how to react to the racism of Shakespeare since he is our protagonist. So this portrayal