RACISM IN SHAKESPEARE’S OTHELLO

Racism and discrimination against Africans has existed long before the times of anti- miscegenation laws and lynching in the Deep South. In William Shakespeare’s Othello, we can see that racism against those of color existed even in the 17th century. “Shakespeare 's play is the text that will at once unsettle and fill in, substantiate and resolve what the audience suspects it already knows about the essence of blackness as the savage and libidinous Other” (Little 305). Shakespeare wields the prejudice that he knows the audience has come with, by making Othello the victim of Iago’s malicious plan. “The weight of critical tradition… presents a Shakespeare who finds racial and cultural difference insignificant and