Yes

by Steven Newit

Created on: February 27, 2011

Othello is called ‘The Moor’ throughout the play and is subjected to multiple racial slurs from the very first act. How can we learn anything from this unless the actor, like the character on the page, is black? If he is not, Shakespeare's words will be made to look foolish.

Racial abuse and racism are serious issues which our laws seek to address. However, people do come in different shapes, sizes, religious affiliations and races. Discussing that and acknowledging the truth of it is a legitimate academic area. Students of History, Politics and Sociology need to be allowed to consider a multiplicity of factors affecting groups of people.

Although this play deals with other issues, race is quite clearly a factor.

Iago famously brings down the tragic hero, Othello, tricking him into the murder of his wife, leading quickly to his own death. It is a tale of frustrated ambition and treachery. Although Othello may be too ready to believe in his wife’s infidelity, other characters are set against him and one of the things motivating their wickedness is racism: they don’t believe a black man is worthy of great authority and seek his downfall from the very beginning.

Othello is black and some of the white characters in the play hold racist opinions. This much is undeniable and clear for anyone to see. We just need to look at the words Shakespeare has his characters say in Act One, Scene One.

Waking up Desdemona's father, Brabantio, Iago shouts:

"Even now, now, very now, an old black ram
Is tupping your white ewe. Arise, arise!
Awake the snorting citizens with the bell,
Or else the devil will make a grandsire of you."

This is incredibly racist. Othello is singled out by color, and for forcing himself on Desdemona. Shakespeare has put a lot of racist ideas in Iago's mouth in just these four lines.

Iago in even suggesting that the children of mixed race from this union will be devils:

“the devil will make a grandsire out of you."

Having a white Desdemona and a black Othello is going to be necessary for this to make sense unless, of course, you are making a radio production.

On meeting Othello, Brabantio insists that his daughter had no interest in marriage before and therefore must have:

"Run from her guardage to the sooty bosom
Of such a thing as thou- to fear, not to delight.
Judge me the world, if 'tis not gross in sense
That thou hast practiced on her with foul charms,
Abused her delicate youth with drugs or minerals
 That weaken motion."

Here we see Brabantio objectify Othello as 'a thing' which is probably racist, and then he suggests that his daughter has only complied with his wishes due to him using a drug, perhaps some sort of Shakespearean Rohypnol.

"Abused her delicate youth with drugs or minerals".

Othello being black is quite a problem for Desdemona's father. It would be a brave teacher in this PC age that would risk basing a discussion on the misconceptions and bigotry clearly displayed by the character. There might be insights there but dare we explore them?

Might it be better to sanitise this layer of interpretation and insist on a 50:50 ratio of races, or one that reflected all the possible ethnic groups in a class, or do an all black or all white version?

Could we not just have an Othello – like Morocco in ‘The Merchant of Venice’ – black, proud and self-assured? It worked for hundreds of years. Why are we even asking the question now? Is this really about ‘Othello’ at all, or is it about how modern western societies and how some people treat race issues?

We don’t have to be racists to see racists.

Shakespeare puts these racist terms into Brabantio's tirade. We can learn something about him from his racism, and perhaps something of the nature of the society that is the context for it.  This is what education is all about – not filtering a play over four hundred years old, censoring it to fit in with our current political and moral fashions and law.

On a slightly tangential note: a version of Mark Twain’s ‘Huckleberry Finn’ is to be published without the Big Indian in it. By the same logic ‘One flew over the cuckoo’s nest’ may be next. The insane PC thinking that would vandalize literature rather than gain insights from the characters in it has a name: ‘revisionism’. Why must we fly from common-sense and patently obvious truths?

Although the question invites one to argue that Othello ‘must’ be played by a black man, it is probably truer to say that he ‘should’ be.  If he is not, then the racist abuse from Iago, Roderigo and Brabantio must be skipped over and underplayed.

This may be politer and probably the easiest route to follow for anyone in education wishing to avoid controversy.

In ‘The Merchant of Venice’ there is a huge amount of anti-Semitism and Shylock is eventually crushed by a collusion of Christians headed by a cross-dressing impostor in the form of Portia. How races behave in fiction might lend us insight into how they behave on the International stage. If we deny race with a white Othello an educational opportunity may be lost.

‘Othello’ could be seen as an opportunity to break with negative racial stereotypes.  Before he is brought down by white people he is easily the most powerful and successful individual in the play.

Shakespeare wrote four major tragedies and only ‘Othello’ features a black tragic hero. It seems unfair to deny black people even one. In fact, it seems racist to even suggest that this should not be allowed.

Of course the lead should be played by a black man – and by one who can show the power, charisma, passion and force of this hugely important literary character.

To even consider the character of ‘Othello’ as anything other than a powerful black man at the top of the political and social tree is to duck issues and sidestep the interesting questions this might raise in our minds.

Is there an actual conspiracy on the part of duplicitous white racists in society to sabotage the progress of black people? Why are more Shakespearean tragic heroes not black?  Might we ask the same question about ethnic diversity and success by race distributions in the modern workplace?

"Othello" has stood the test of time. Rewrite it and mess with the race of its tragic hero and 'the Moor' may become less.

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