OTHELLO’S BLACKNESS AS THE LUXURY OF WHITE: EXPLORING RACIAL INNOCENCE IN SHAKESPEARE'S OTHELLO

Abstract

This research paper explores whiteness as a dominant ideology that remains invisible in Shakespeare’s Othello while projecting Othello’s blackness as a visible fact of life. Racial ignorance, or white innocence, functions as an epistemological position that marginalizes non-white races, and Shakespeare deliberately sustains this innocence in the play. Set in a white-dominated environment, the play’s aesthetic achievement is inseparable from the blackness of Othello. Without the presence of racialized Blackness, the supremacy of whiteness would remain unmarked; thus, Othello’s blackness grants visibility to the superiority of white identity. Drawing on theories of whiteness, this study argues that the absence of explicit whiteness is central to Shakespeare’s dramatization, shaping social and political identities within the play’s world. The research further enables students to interrogate Shakespeare’s politics of identity formation, offering insight into the mechanisms through which dominant culture emerges in his works. Ultimately, the study reveals how societal structures are regulated by racial regimes, with Shakespeare reinforcing the superiority of whiteness through the blackness of characters like Othello.