This thread is totally off the rails anyways....
The depiction of Othello, or any Moor, as black is quite racist. Moor was a derogatory term used to describe Muslims or sometimes just not "white" people. The "moors" entering Europe at this time would've been a mix of North Africans, Berbers, Anatolians, and people from the Levant.
Europeans just referred to moors as "black" because they were not quite what they considered white and it was meant to be a negative description that lumped all foreigners together into one negatively described group.
Now modern theatre has adopted that negative description and uses black actors to portray Othello. It would be much more accurate, and less racist, to use someone with a slightly darker than European skin tone.
|