Contemporary Literature and Shakespeare: Othello

Diversity is the contemporary of our time. According to Sandra Cisneros “The United States is one of the most diverse nations in the world and so contemporary literature should and should have include one of America’s brightest aspects.” This blog post is a synopsis of the article by Chinua Achebe called “Image of Africa”.

Chinua’s article “Image of Africa” highlights some misunderstood aspects of racial respect, which are exemplified in the play “Othello”. One of Chin’s main arguments is people portraying other cultures as inferior to their own and being called “permanent literature” basically timeless novels that are “evaluated by serious academics”. Chin would have argued that “Othello” the play, has a great deal of bias for dark skinned people in it, which is true. However Shakespeare showed these people in that light to address different sides of race to get a reaction out of his audience. Shakespeare showed both, the complete racist and how people could see past bigotry and notice greatness when a supposed inferior person has exceptional talent. Chinua argues that “Othello” the play is deeper than that. Shakespeare unknowingly exemplified the complexity of racial equality. He did this by using Othello’s status to show the different levels of racism. This is done by showing that yes, the people are racist but that Othello is seen as better  because of his talent on scene three line 110. Barbantio tells the Duke all the accusations against him, and the Duke says to Barbantio that he has “no proof” then what people could commonly say about dark skinned people. It is also shown by the Venations listening understandingly to Barbantio’s complaints against Othello. But the only people in the play that are really racists’ against Othello is the people that want him out of the way for their happiness. Iago, Roderigo, and Brabantio, really show there racism against Othello, but the Venetians are usually ok with Othello and his differences. They don’t celebrate them but they are ok with them. The complexity shown is: even after some people gain civil rights, if that people gets in the way of the people they gained the civil rights from or feel some squeeze of some kind, they will take away the liberties given because there is some bias still and they will do what is necessary to preserve themselves. People will stop at nothing to get people out of there way, and more than that people don’t like to let go of seeing people as inferior to them. Chinua thinks this was highlighted in the civil rights march in Chicago. The people in Chicago saw themselves as good on civil rights. But when a march was held there for rights they were violently unwilling to give up there bias. Major racism is easy to see, this is exemplified by events surrounding Martin Luther during the civil rights movement of that time. People don’t see their bias because it’s so small it is there. The unnoticed bias will be there and won’t come out tell people feel a squeeze.