Othello 4

Though racist, people in Shakespeare's Othello do treat the victims of their racism differently compared to today's racists. Othello, a black male who was previously a slave, is a well respected general.  Though some are racist to them, I do not believe that all of it is maliciously racist, it is just a welcomed part of their society.  "Your son-in-law is far more fair than black"(Shakespeare, I, iii, 1379).  This quote, though sounding malicious, may indeed just have been their well accustomed custom.  Though fairly odd to modern people, it was probably okay then because as the reader sees, there are not physical restraints to what black individuals may do.  Similarly, women, though treated with some amount of sexism, are treated with some respect, too.  After Cassio's fight, Desdemona was woken up.  Othello, seeing that his wife was awake, slapped Cassio for doing that.  This particular action showed that people of the day still treated their women with some respect contrary to what Iago tries to portray to the readers.