It is only natural that one should love ones own race.

But one cannot love ones own race without taking pride in one or more characteristics of ones own race, just as a giraffe cannot love its own species without taking pride in, say, its long neck. It may be remembered that, in The Merchant of Venice, Jessica says:

Alack, what heinous sin is it in me To be ashamed to be my fathers child! But though I am a daughter to his blood I am not to his manners. (MV, 2.3.16-19)

Jessica cannot take pride in her fathers manners and her fathers manners are considered to be those of a typical Jew. So, she decides to become a Christian and Lorenzos loving wife (MV, 2.3.21), forsaking her cultural heritage, which all Jews share.

While Jessica is just about to become a Christian, Othello, as the play opens, is not simply a Moor; he is a Christian (Hecht 125). Is Othello born into a Christian family or is he converted to Christianity sometime later? We can find no answer to this question in the play. If, as many critics believe, Othello is a convert and that helps him secure his position and peoples trust in Venice,12 has he lost pride in his own race and his original faith? Again, we cannot find the answer directly in the play. According to Leo Africanus description in The History and Description of Africa (1526), Barbary people were decent, valiant, patient, courteous, honest, skillful warriors ... and exceeding lovers and practicers of humanity.13 Does Othello ever take pride in his people as such? To Iago he once says, I fetch my life and being/from men of royal siege, and My parts, my title, and my perfect soul/Shall manifest me rightly (OT, 1.2.21-22 & 31-32). These lines imply that Othello has confidence in himself because of his noble birth, good ability, present position and perfect soul. But does his perfect soul come from his Christian belief? After a brawl in Cyprus, Othello berates his soldiers by asking, Are we turned Turks, and to ourselves do that/Which heaven has forbid the Ottomites? This question shows that Othello is ashamed of such barbarous tribes as Turks and the Ottomites, which may be linked to his own Moorish race. Besides, he also favors Christianity, for he goes on to say, For Christian shame, put by this barbarous brawl (OT, 1.3.163).

Faith is part of ones nurture, not nature. As such, it is actually not part of ones racial heritage. Yet, to many people of our time as well as Shakespeares, religion almost always seems to bond with race. That is why even today Jews are equated with Judaism and Moors with Moslemism. So far, we have mentioned three of Shakespeares characters (Jessica, Othello, and Caliban) who have somehow become willing to accept the faith or grace of Christianity. Their self-pride, thus, does not

cover the pride in their racial religion. To Shylock, however, the bond of union between his race and his religion is so strong that he simply cannot bear to break it. After he is forced in court to say he is content to become a Christian, he immediately asks for leave to go from hence, saying I am not well (MV, 4.1.391-2).

To Shylock, in fact, his race, his religion, and his nation are one. He thinks he embodies all Jewish virtues and is proud of his Jewish value. He says he will not eat, drink, nor pray with Christians (MV, 1.3.32-33). He argues for the Jewish virtue of thrift (MV, 1.3.66-85). He regards sufferance as the badge of all his tribe (MV, 1.3.105). And when the time comes, he utters all his racial grievances through the Hath not a Jew eyes ... protest (MV, 3.1.52-66). If intrinsic racism is to plead for racial solidarity, Shylocks racism is so intrinsic that it is not only tinged with ethnocentrism (preference for ones own ethnic group), but also with xenophobia (fear of racial difference). In a sense, then, his dislike of miscegenation (against his daughters marriage with a Christian Venetian) is also derived from his intrinsic racism. And in all probability Tubal, another Jew in the play, is the only one left for his trust.

In the same play, the Prince of Moroccos pleading of Mislike me not for my complexion and his insistence that I would not change this hue (MV, 2.1.1 & 11) also demonstrate his intrinsic racism and his own racial pride.

If we want to dwell on the topic of racial pride or intrinsic racism, we must understand that Shakespeares entire oeuvre is set in a white-dominated culture and a Christian milieu. Therefore, all the non-white and non-Christian characters racial pride is but a weak trace, compared with the overwhelming pride of the Christian whites that make up the majority of the playwrights dramatis personae. Think of all those who have expressed contempt for Moors, Jews or other aliens: Demetrius and Chiron; Antonio, Bassanio, and Portia; Brabantio, Iago, and Roderigo; Philo, Pompey, and Octavius; as well as Prospero, Miranda, etc. Do they not carry their racial pride to such an extent that their intrinsic racism for racial solidarity has practically become extrinsic racism that features prejudice, hatred, oppression, etc., besides contempt?

Shakespeares characters are indeed all set in a white-centered Christendom. In the white Christians minds, it is the world of the saved and the civilized, apart from the pagans and the infidels (Fitch15). In such a world, a person is automatically thought to be a white.

The whites in Shakespeare do have various prejudices against the non-whites and non-Christians. A colored person, for instance, is often connected with lustfulness. Othello is directly addressed as The lustful Moor

A colored person is also often connected with sorcery. Brabantio accuses Othello of practicing on Desdemona with foul charms (OT, 1.2.73):

Ay, to me: She is abused, stolen from me and corrupted, By spells and medicines, bought of mountebanks, For nature so preposterously to err, (Being not deficient, blind, or lame of sense) Sans witchcraft could not. (OT, 1.3.59-64)

For the whites, a colored person is nothing but a barbarian and thus is often only next to a beast and may even be compared to a bird, a fish, or an insect. We know Othello is a noble Moor. Yet, he is intentionally referred to as an erring barbarian (OT, 1.3.356). When he confesses that he has killed Desdemona, Emilia cries out, O, the more angel she,/And you the blacker devil! (OT, 5.2.1312).

Like a non-white, a non-Christian also suffers from prejudices. Shylock is said to be a very Jew and a faithless Jew (MV, 2.2100 & 2.4.37). Since he lends money at exorbitant rates, he is considered as nothing but a loan shark. He is called the villain Jew, the dog Jew, the very devil incarnation, this cruel devil, and this currish Jew (MV, 2.7.4, 2.8.14, 2.2.26, 4.1.213, 4.1.288). His desires are said to be wolvish, bloody, starved, and ravenous (MV, 4.1.138). So, his daughters kindness towards Launcelot Gobbo only makes Launcelot say: ... most beautiful pagan, most sweet Jew!if a Christian do not play the knave and get thee, I am much deceived (MV, 2.3.10-12).

Iago also has reasons, of course, to hate Othello: e.g. the reasons lurking in his complaint that preferment goes by letter and affection,/Not by the old gradation (OT, 1.1.36-37), and in his ungrounded suspicion that Othello has done my office betwixt my sheets (OT, 1.3.385-6).14 But what intensifies his hate may be the fact that he is placed under the command of the Moor, and an alien Moor is supposed to be not qualified for a general of the whites, nor even for the husband of a beautiful Venetian. That is why Iago should say, We cannot be all masters, nor all masters/Cannot be truly followed ... In following him, I follow but myself (OT, 1.1.42-58). That is also why he should warn Brabantio that an old black ram/Is tupping your white ewe ... the devil will make a grandsire of you (OT, 1.1.88-91). And that is the ultimate reason why he should carry out all his villainous scheme so cruelly against Othello.

Disgrace is what Shylock often has to suffer from. He reminds Antonio that You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog,/And spet upon my Jewish gabardine ... You spurned me such a day, another time/You called me dog (MV, 1.3.106-123). He is said to be, and is indeed, merciless in court towards Antonio, but he is likewise mercilessly treated when the case turns. All the Christians, including the fair judicious lawyer (Portia), seem to feel no qualms in condemning the Jew severely, seizing all his property and forcing him to convert to Christianity.15 They also seem to feel no qualms about Lorenzos seducing the Jews daughter and squandering the Jews money, nor about Launcelot Gobbos getting a Moor big with child. They can only laugh to hear another Jews (Tubals) report about this Jews misfortunes.

Appiah theorizes that there are two main types of racism; extrinsic racism which believes that different races have different moral qualities and therefore warrant different treatment and respect, and intrinsic racism which fosters a sense of race feeling and superiority among each race. Shakespeare presents these two types of racism in his plays; racism of pride is highlighted in the The Merchant of Venice where people are discriminated against because of their nurture, which includes ones religion and mannerisms, and racism of prejudice is highlighted in Othello where people are discriminated against because of their nature such as ones skin colour.