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There was a lot of references to Othello being black in the play. Most people haven't read it/seen it in a long time but it actually was a play based a lot on the fact that Othello was black and the derision that it caused amongst the upper class Venetians that he'd married an upper class Venetian woman.
Some info regarding race being a factor in the play and racism:
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For it’s not just Iago whose speech is infected with contempt for ‘the Moor’ (as he repeatedly refers to Othello), though the intensity of his loathing is unrivalled. ‘Even now, now, very now, an old black ram / Is tupping your white ewe’ (1.1.88–9), he cries to Brabantio in the opening scene. Roderigo derides Othello too as ‘the thick-lips’ (1.1.66), while Brabantio, in his public confrontation with Othello, finds it inconceivable that his daughter should desire to ‘Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom / Of such a thing as thou’ (1.2.70–1) without being drugged or bewitched. In a vain attempt to placate Brabantio, the Duke assures him that ‘If virtue no delighted beauty lack, / Your son-in-law is far more fair than black’ (1.3.289–90). So endemic to Venetian culture are such attitudes that Othello and Desdemona can’t help absorbing them too: ‘I saw Othello’s visage in his mind’ (1.3.252), Desdemona declares to the Senate, oblivious to the unintended insult that brave declaration implies. When Othello’s faith in Desdemona’s love for him begins to crumble, his complexion is the first thing he blames: ‘Haply, for I am black, / And have not those soft parts of conversation / That chamberers have’ (3.3.263–5). And he instinctively employs his own blackness as a metaphor for his wife’s alleged depravity: ‘Her name, that was as fresh / As Dian's visage, is now begrim'd and black / As mine own face’ (3.3.386–8)
Iago in particular as is bolded above had a huge contempt about Othello because he was upset that Othello didn't promote him and also because he was black. He and Rodrigo caused Desdemona's father - Brabantio to go into a rage by egging him on that a black man was "doing" his daughter basically which makes her father also rage about Othello being black.
Note Othello was a very successful general and if he'd been white, it is doubtful especially that Desdemona's father would have had an issue with him to the degree that he had.
It is also telling that Othello bought into the idea of his own inferiority based on his blackness - he used it as a reason for why Desdemona probably really didn't love him. He also considered himself being black to mean that he was ignorant/uneducated - which is referenced in the orange. He felt he was bringing her down to an inferior level because was black.
We read this in college. I was an English major and we also went to see it. I had to take a Shakespeare course and we reviewed this as an example of Shakespearean tragedy, even though I'd also read it in high school. It was an interesting review though to read it again.
Some "black Actors" don't want to play Othello because, in accordance with their view, there is creeping racism.
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Originally Posted by asiago12
Ancient Romans ( Roman Empire ) were not racist in the sense they were looking at the color of your skin.
They didn't care less about that.
Rome was a multicultural society.
There were "romans" from Egypt Nubia- Sudan- .. (Saint Maurice is a Catholic's Saint and he was a black-african General of the legendary "Roman" Theban legion ) Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Israel, Greece, Persia, Lebanon, Ukraine, South-Russia, Armenia, Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Germany, Belgium, France, Holland, England, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Lybia, Algeria, Switezerland... and... of course.. Italy.
What made it different was were you a "Citizen" or not.. If you were not a Citizen you were nobody. But if you were a Citizen the color of your skin was not importanta at all.
And everybody could move along the social scale...and everybody ( no matter skin color ) could acquire citizenship. While for ancient Greeks you could not acquire citizenship... For the Romans even a slave could become first a free man and than a Citizen
Augustus Emperor
Saint Maurice portrait in Christian Church in Europe ( particularly in Germany )
In Venice and other renaissance cities in Italy the color of your skin was not important.
Othello was i well reputated leader .. evil maybe...
Sorry but these show you either haven't read/watched the play or if you have you didn't understand it.
The play itself is not racist but it portrays the racism against Othello in Venetian society amongst a lot of other "isms" per my post above.
On Rome, Desdemona was the daughter of a Venetian Senator and Othello was a general in the Venetian army.
And you don't know what Romans cared about or thought about because they lived a thousand years ago...
On Othello, it was based on a 16th century play and is believed to have been written by Shakespeare between 1600-1605.
On black actors playing Othello, many prominent black actors have played Othello. He is a tragic figure and is not the villain of the play - Iago is actually the villain.
Sorry but these show you either haven't read/watched the play or if you have you didn't understand it.
Wait. The question is: Is Othello a racist play ?
I have not expressed my opinion about the question.. I 'm expressing it now : .. No! in my humble opinion OTHELLO is not a racist play ..
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The play itself is not racist but it portrays the racism against Othello in Venetian society amongst a lot of other "isms" per my post above.
The question in different words could be: Why some black Actors consider Othello a racist play ?
Just curiosity
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And you don't know what Romans cared about or thought about because they lived a thousand years ago...
The Romans had no idea about what a race was.. Is a fact that the romans didn't not care less about color skin of anybody...Social status had nothing to do with skin color or ethnicity;
A slave, in ancient Rome, was just as likely to be a German, or a Scythian nomad from the Ukrainian steppes, or a Gaul or Celt or Briton, as to be a black African from South Egypt or Sudan or Ethiopia..West Africa or Mauretania.
People of Black African heritage rose to the highest ranks among Roman .So, the fact of having dark-whiter skin, or African-Barbarian heritage, meant virtually nothing..
Ancient romans Citizen from Egypt Tebaide and Nubia ( that is Sudan )
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On black actors playing Othello, many prominent black actors have played Othello. He is a tragic figure and is not the villain of the play - Iago is actually the villain.
I don't doubt that.. but there are other prominent black-actors who consider Othello a racist play.. by omission... ( i don't understand what do they mean exactly )
Please let me know as soon as anyone cares. That was what, 400 years ago? Really?
dumb liberals/sjws like to find things they dont like about history to create a fake outrage over things past(statues being torn down is a good recent example, it was not as problem for decades but all of a sudden they became a racist symbol because some hypersensitive sjw said so), it probably wont be long before this type of thing gets in the cross hairs of their retarted logic.
dumb liberals/sjws like to find things they dont like about history to create a fake outrage over things past(statues being torn down is a good recent example, it was not as problem for decades but all of a sudden they became a racist symbol because some hypersensitive sjw said so), it probably wont be long before this type of thing gets in the cross hairs of their retarted logic.
Would you be so kind to explain it in different words ?
Please let me know as soon as anyone cares. That was what, 400 years ago? Really?
Liberals are always looking to be offended. Let's hope they don't find out about any other possible racist stories of the past. Not even Aladdin and Pocahontas are safe.
There have been plenty of racially insensitive productions of Othello. The play itself as written is anti-racist.
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Originally Posted by asiago12
In Venice and other renaissance cities in Italy the color of your skin was not important.
Maybe. But religion and family background certainly were, and Othello wasn't just dark-skinned, he was a Moor.
Consider Columbus's (who was what we'd now call Italian) behavior toward the people he encountered in the Americas - this would be roughly contemporary to the period Othello is set. It's disingenuous to act like there wasn't racial or ethnic prejudice then just because it was arguably less colorism-based.
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