Othello Was Always Racist
I read Othello for the first time back in sixth grade. I remember my friend was chosen to read the part of Desdemona as we went through the play as a class. The boy who read for Othello mumbled through his lines unenthusiastically, muddling along until it came time for him to point at her and shout, "Down strumpet!" when the time came. We talk about that moment even now, nearly a decade later, and for a while, that was all I really remembered in regard to Othello.
Now that we're reading the play in class, a lot of my memories of reading it in sixth grade are starting to resurface. I went to a private, Catholic grade school. I'm not exactly sure why we were reading the play as sixth graders, especially when we didn't even read it in high school. We didn't talk about Othello in terms of racism at all, our teacher choosing instead to focus on Othello's jealousy and Iago's crafty manipulation.
I was the only African American kid in my class (and practically in the whole school, aside from my brother), but I don't remember being made uncomfortable by the play. The lack of attention drawn to the racist overtones of the play distracted me from them entirely. We weren't told what the word "Moor" meant in the play's context. The extent of what we were taught was that Othello was black, Desdemona was his wife, and no one was happy about that.
When I became aware of Othello again later in life, I was astounded by how problematic Othello's representation was. Desdemona married him despite his dark skin. Everyone calls him a "Moor" left and right. I wondered how my sixth grade teacher managed to pull the wool over my eyes when race, as a mixed kid in a dominantly white school, was something I was very sensitive about. I wouldn't call her teaching of the play irresponsible, but I do think it was dishonest to the true, traumatic nature of the play. But the topic of race does make people extremely uncomfortable, so I can kind of see why she wouldn't want to get into it with a group of sixth graders. But then, why teach Othello at all?
Othello's gradual downward spiral seems more realistic when you think about the life he must've led as a black man in Europe before everything went to shit for him. I didn't understand him as a twelve-year-old, or why he would listen to Iago's lies and kill his wife with his own two hands, but it seems more plausible now that I know what Othello was really up against.
Now that we're reading the play in class, a lot of my memories of reading it in sixth grade are starting to resurface. I went to a private, Catholic grade school. I'm not exactly sure why we were reading the play as sixth graders, especially when we didn't even read it in high school. We didn't talk about Othello in terms of racism at all, our teacher choosing instead to focus on Othello's jealousy and Iago's crafty manipulation.
I was the only African American kid in my class (and practically in the whole school, aside from my brother), but I don't remember being made uncomfortable by the play. The lack of attention drawn to the racist overtones of the play distracted me from them entirely. We weren't told what the word "Moor" meant in the play's context. The extent of what we were taught was that Othello was black, Desdemona was his wife, and no one was happy about that.
When I became aware of Othello again later in life, I was astounded by how problematic Othello's representation was. Desdemona married him despite his dark skin. Everyone calls him a "Moor" left and right. I wondered how my sixth grade teacher managed to pull the wool over my eyes when race, as a mixed kid in a dominantly white school, was something I was very sensitive about. I wouldn't call her teaching of the play irresponsible, but I do think it was dishonest to the true, traumatic nature of the play. But the topic of race does make people extremely uncomfortable, so I can kind of see why she wouldn't want to get into it with a group of sixth graders. But then, why teach Othello at all?
Othello's gradual downward spiral seems more realistic when you think about the life he must've led as a black man in Europe before everything went to shit for him. I didn't understand him as a twelve-year-old, or why he would listen to Iago's lies and kill his wife with his own two hands, but it seems more plausible now that I know what Othello was really up against.
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