One of the best books I read this year was Randall Robinson's The Debt America Owes to Blacks. It was the kind of shockingly delicious book you e-mail 10+ friends about (Amazon.com link included; subject heading embossed by at least 3 exclamation marks and READ THIS in all caps). It had a controversial title, so I couldn't comfortably read it on the train; there were too many double takes and pursed lips. And I couldn't read it around my friends because they always wanted to begin debates I didn't have the energy to continue. So it became this guilty yet admittedly intellectual pleasure I indulged in during the time I allotted for Homework. I read it pencil in hand, ready to outline, underline and annotate each unapologetic word. For a few weeks, I considered Randall Robinson my God though what he wrote about had nothing to do with me and was rarely something I could even begin to agree with.
One of the millennia of opinions he gave that made an impression on me was his analysis of Othello. He was discussing the
Looking at racism in Othello I was able to reevaluate my understanding of the characters. I see Othello as a stranger in a place where everyone is acutely aware of his physicality. The perception most characters had about his marriage is expressed with beautiful and cruel poetry the idea of black and white, darkness and light. Othello, admittedly a distinguished figure in Venetian society probably was not aware of these perceptions until his elopement with Desdemona was known. Brabantio, someone with whom he believed he had a positive relationship, accused him of seducing his daughter with black magic. I can never condone or try to explain Othello's violent jealousy, but the end of Othello gave me an acute sense of injustice enhanced by my awareness of the issues of race as I reread the play. Part of it was my own tense knowledge of what would happen at the end and my helplessness to stop it. I did modify Othello to correlate with my own experience and it gave me a sincere sense of empathy. I was moved by his powerful monologues and (more t
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