Othello And Racial Prejudice

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Othello is one of Shakespeare’s classics due to the theme of prejudice, especially racial prejudice. This theme is applicable in Shakespeare’s time and in modern society. In Othello, the theme of prejudice plays a significant part in the tragedies and causes the downfall of certain characters. Othello is often discriminated because of his race. One scene that demonstrates this is in Act 1 Scene 1, where Brabanzio believes Othello won Desdemona’s heart by black magic because of Othello’s race. In reality, it is discovered in Act I Scene II Othello won her affection by telling Desdemona his war stories. The discrimination of his race is implied as one of the reasons Iago despises Othello. As a result, Iago wishes for Othello’s downfall, and succeeds with the price of his eventual torture. …show more content…
In modern society, racial prejudice exists in modern society, most commonly in media. One example is the presidential candidates media focuses on. One candidate, Donald Trump, has a history of racial prejudice from denying African American customers from rent to recent comments of having Mexicans, who are a different race to Donald Trump, to build a wall and having them pay for it. Another example of racial prejudice media focuses on is with recent violence dealing with police officers. In Dallas, a shooter murdered police officers because they were white. The violence was a direct effect of a police officer shooting an African American person. This increased the hashtag “Black Lives Matter”, in which their main goal is to reduce and stop racial prejudice. Prejudice is a theme that is applied to Othello and modern

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