AMST 3822 Chapter 3: AMST Williams
Document Summary
Student k. had an exam where othello is described as a black militaristic african leader who marries the young white desdemona whom he then kills in a fit of sexual rage. Othello is put on trial and students need to identify elements of murder. K first went to professor to tell him he thought it racist. Then k went to administrator who called her an activist but not before he said that she should be more concerned about learning the law and less about the package in which it comes. The exam used race in a peculiarly gratuitous fashion. Human dilemmas not the subject of the problem, instead a flattening of universal emotions and events to mere stereotype because all the artful, evocative context of the original is missing. Reduces the facts to racist generalizations and stereotypes, as well as placing an enormous burden on black students in particular.
