ABSTRACT
Critics have considered Shakespeare’s Othello and Elizabethan culture generally fundamentally racist for a long time now. However, just as not everybody in early modern England was an antisemite, a misogynist, or a snob, neither did everybody consider Black people inferior because of the color of their skin. After showing how “black” and “white” had both positive and negative usages, this chapter looks at the place of Afro-Britons in London. Some were servants. Others worked for themselves. A fortunate few participated in “some of the best known stories of the age.” Furthermore, the record of Mary Phyllis’s adult baptism at St. Botolph’s demonstrates that she was considered a valuable, and valued, member of the community, regardless of her origins or skin color. Certainly, racism existed. One can find many negative comments about Black people, including several by Queen Elizabeth. However, anti-racism also existed, and Shakespeare pushes back against anti-Black bias in Titus Andronicus and The Tragedy of Othello, The Moor of Venice. In Titus, as evil as Aaron may be, he also does everything he can to preserve his son’s life while Titus kills two of his children. Which, Shakespeare asks, is the better parent? And in Othello, Shakespeare demonstrates the corrosive effects of racism by having Othello internalize Brabantio’s, Iago’s, and Roderigo’s negative views of blackness.
