Is Othello a racist play? Highlights with subtitles | Debates | Royal Shakespeare Company 

Not English but Theatre History: Shakespearean Performance Thru the Ages

@@shelby8281 didn't ask

@@Rachel_Tensions I mean the original comment asked so nobody was talking to you or asking you so nice try. Also sorry you feel the need to be rude for no reason. Bye

shelby Deere shut up!!!! do not speak to me in this manner! swondssss

@@Rachel_Tensions stfu ur tripping bra

We also should do this with todays people, it's not fair to judge everyone by the wokest standards of the left when it come to issues of race. Most people are not woke, and don't see race and racism in those terms even today.

So, none of these points have any meaning: Othello was not a black man. He was N. Africa Amazigh man. This was written in 1603, an era in which anyone foreign with a tan would have been labelled "black." _This video and his points are embarrassingly stupid._

@@theviceroyofreality7073 Othello is definitely written as a black man, regardless of his being described as a "Moor." He has a "sooty bosom," he's described as the "old black ram," etc... I think one of the characters calls him "thick lipped," which is usually a stereotype associated with Black people, not the Amazigh/North Africans.

the best way i heard it described was by my professor at cambridge "othello is a provocative play, it provokes the mind of fools to assume they understand what race is"

Well racism is a political construct, used to justify violence and discrimination. The Romans used racist propaganda to justify wars against the Gauls and Celts. The European powers in the medieval and modern eras used it to justify land grabs and claims of kingship. Now, racism is used to justify the way that black people are treated in European and American countries, limiting their value and political participation.

Really interesting points about the history here! I think these points are all correct, just as much as saying Othello is a play about race. I do wish to challenge you on how race "never came to mind." It's pretty blaring that race plays such an integral part to the lies and deceits and stereotypes in the play. Desdemona doesn't think Othello can be jealous because of the color of his skin, due to the humors of black men not demonstrating jealousy. Othello in the same scene storms on stage in a jealous anger, which ultimately shows the racial stereotypes played at this racial thinking. How can race also not come to mind when Othello is clearly the only black man in the entire text? I do not mean to attack you in anyway, just some things to consider when coming to terms with race and Othello Race is not the ONLY thing about Othello, but to say it is totally exempt (not that you're saying that completely) I think is underestimating what the text is doing with race.

@@822pictures I'll challenge you in turn; I am not sure Othello's rage is an example of that (more recent than Shakespeare's age) racial stereotype. However, it could be very well be an inspiration for it, now that you mention it. One of the more striking examples of race is how Iago baits Desdemona's father with the line about the old black ram tupping the white ewe. That's essentially the Jim Crow era trope, though since Iago is using it for sinister ends - is Shakespeare endorsing it, or condemning it? As with Shrew (misogyny) and Merchant (antisemitism, also misogyny) it is not entirely clear whether the prejudices of the characters were written to be taken at "face value," or if they are instead there as satire.

Rik Remmerswaal that’s a dangerous view - the two societies of now and the Jacobean era must be viewed within their contexts, so you can’t apply the views but you must compare one to the other

Definitely doesn’t come across that way in the whole debate, you should watch it! Very interesting.

Very well said.

A very delayed question. Could the Othello be effectively played out with an all White, Black, Asia, 1st Nation cast?

Othello murdered his wife within hours of consummating their marriage on the mere suspicion (based on a mislaid handkerchief) that she "hath the act of shame a thousand times committed" with another man. WTF?

"A very delayed question. Could the Othello be effectively played out with an all White, Black, Asia, 1st Nation cast? " I believe it has been.

It may be about racism, but it also reproduces racist ideas about black men, and the idea that white women must be protected. Othello's monologue at the end about "being whipped" and returning to slavery shows that.

The actors of Shakespeares time would have used black face to portray Othello. So he is most likely black

The Moors came from North Africa, they came in many colours and races. Also Othello is referred to as Black in the play, and his wife white. He was a fictional character, so how dark exactly he looked is down to interpretation.

I agree with you completely (though it's only "race" to a modern reader/viewer, I think "xenophobia" is more apt for a contemporary lens). Which leaves only one question: did Shakespeare mean to satirize the prejudice, or for us to just take it all at face value? In a play like Merchant, in which Shylock gives possibly the most relatable villainous vengeance speech. It's hard for me as a modern reader to understand how the Shakespeare that wrote this (below), was not alive to the injustice inflicted upon people based on prejudice: if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villany you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.

But if Brutus says he was racist, and Brutus is an HONOURABLE MAN!

The point was that the play predates the building and implementation of racism, at least as we (or more accurately, I) understand it. On the other hand, I think it's entirely possible that the play's portrayal of Othello as a rageaholic Black man who murders his white wife in a fit of rage is the root of that racist stereotype in the Anglophone tradition. But it was written in 1600. An English captain conducted two slave raids of the West African coast in 1562 and 1564 (modern Sierra Leone), abducting captives to be sold in the Caribbean (to the Spanish). England's first colonies in the Caribbean were established in 1612* (if you count Bermuda), or 1623 with Saint Kitts. Now, if we were talking about a Spanish or Portuguese play written in 1600, I think there's a MUCH stronger case to be made that the play would be racist. Same goes for an English play if it was written a few decades later. Not trying to absolve or diminish the monstrousness of what was done, to be clear. The really pivotal moment is the implementation of a legal code that distinguishes solely based on skin colour, i.e. chattel slavery (in which children born to enslaved Africans in the America were born slaves). That's when the system of institutionalized, societal racial hierarchy has become apparent, and of course these laws did not come from a vacuum. But prior to these laws, like the Code Noir or the Virginia laws in 1656/1662, we are looking at the soil from which racism sprang. Racism isn't timeless, and it's important we know it for what it is. The continued legacy of Europeans trying to reconcile their Christianity with being morally unscrupulous capitalists in need of cheap labour.

Do you have the same criticism of Merchant, vis a vis antisemitism? It's really hard for me to think the Shakespeare that wrote this actually believed in the prejudices otherwise shown in the plays: To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies; and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villany you teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.

Iago is a full fledged sociopath, I don't think he's "racist" per se but certainly leverages others' prejudices against Othello. His actual motivation appears to be pure ambition. Whether it's because he was passed over for promotion in favour of a black man, or if it was because he was passed over in favour of , it seems like his character would have set out to destroy the rival. That said, I'm not sure "racist" is accurate here, as we understand the term. "Xenophobic" is likely more apt, as the hierarchical ordering of society based on race (first through slavery laws in the Americas, then through scientific racism and social darwinism) would not have happened in Elizabethan England.

@@lumberjacques2766 I think there are layers. Perhaps Iago knew Othello well enough to know that the stereotypes and cliches about the Moors (the exotic/dangerous Other) were not true. But he knew that enough people still believed them enough to make Othello feel isolated and more likely to see Iago as one of the few Venetians he could confide in. My man was just betting away accusations of witchcraft not but a scene or two before Iago started planting seeds. So maybe Iago was less prejudiced, but I do believe that being passed over by a Moor felt especially insulting. So racism sometimes reveals itself when certain stars align. But your points are duly taken.

Whats the point in that statement???

@@nuwang2381 Othello will outlast the woke mob

@@rhynosouris710 it's just a friendly debate based on the potential interpertation of informed people. I mean what are your thoughts on Othello?

@@nuwang2381 Friendly debates are good. My thoughts, literary merit will outlast transient fads.

imagine being that intolerant to other peoples interpretations of art... if you can't hear other people's opinions that differ to yours without having a tantrum then I think you're the sensitive one lmfao

Heres the OED definition of the word Moor: 1. Originally: a native or inhabitant of ancient Mauretania, a region of North Africa corresponding to parts of present-day Morocco and Algeria. Later usually: a member of a Muslim people of mixed Berber and Arab descent inhabiting north-western Africa (now mainly present-day Mauritania), who in the 8th cent. conquered Spain. In the Middle Ages, and as late as the 17th cent., the Moors were widely supposed to be mostly black or very dark-skinned, although the existence of ‘white Moors’ was recognized (see quot. a1549). Thus the term was often used, even into the 20th cent., with the sense ‘black person’ (see quot. 1925). Cf. blackamoor n. While you are right in some regard, it's clear Shakespeare was thinking of a black man when writing Othello

There are repeated references to Othello's black skin in the play, his "sooty bosom," his "thick lipped" mouth, etc... Also, it seems the first recorded instance of the play being performed with Othello having a lighter pigmentation than "black" is in the 19th century.

Always look for a historian on these types of things. Most academics, at least those outside of a few departments, are not "woke" ideologues. I encourage you to seek out more things that you might otherwise dismiss as woke! Most of the time, the label is unfair and elides the actual nuance behind a position.

I do actually, mostly to have a good laugh. That’s exactly what I did when I watched this, and I was positively surprised.

Fascinating, Egyptians are not black, who knew??...Seriously!!

You're a dumbass.

Moor means Black.....

Lmao I guess today we found out stupid is genetic good thing it not contiguous 😂😂😂😂😂 bruh the day Egyptians and moors are white is the same day jesus would be white but then again non of them are white 😂😂😂 let me guess you think othello white too right ahaha dumbass

Classical historians, who were writing during and after the time when Egypt was a province of the Persian Empires, i.e. long after the golden age of pharaohic Egypt had passed and when Egypt was full of foreigners. Several Ancient Greek historians noted that Egyptians had complexions that were "melanchroes". Most scholars translate it as black. Some of the most often quoted historians are Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, and Herodotus. Herodotus states in a few passages that the Egyptians were black/dark. According to most translations, Herodotus states that a Greek oracle was known to be from Egypt because she was "black", that the natives of the Nile region are "black with heat", and that Egyptians were "black skinned with woolly hair". Lucian observes an Egyptian boy and notices that he is not merely black, but has thick lips. Diodorus Siculus mentioned that the Aethiopians considered the Egyptians a colony. Appollodorus, a Greek, calls Egypt the country of the black footed ones. Aeschylus, a Greek poet, wrote that Egyptian seamen had "black limbs."Greeks sometimes referred to Egyptians as Aethiopians not to be confused with inhabitants of the modern-day nation of Ethiopia who were instead referred to as Abyssinians or Habesha and their land as Abyssinia. Gaston Maspero states that "by the almost unanimous testimony of ancient [Greek] historians, they [ancient Egyptians] belonged to the African race, which settled in Ethiopia". Simson Najovits states that Herodotus "made clear ethnic and national distinctions between Aigyptios (Egyptians) and the peoples whom the Greeks referred to as Aithiops (Ethiopians)."

1204 never forget

why? lmao it's an academic debate

Even thought Othello, a muslim, is depicted as a high ranking well respected member of society.

I agree with you 100% re Merchant. I have more trouble with Othello, simply because Shakespeare wrote him so 1-dimensionally compared to his other tragic heroes (or villains, for Shylock). And yeah, Merchant is a comedy - but that's because it has a wedding at the end. Literally. I agree with scholars who classify it as one of the "Problem Plays" that defy easy categorization as archetypical comedies or tragedies. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shakespearean_problem_play