#tawny man supremacy

[motleywolf-et-al]

currently in a "in the space of a sundown, you show me the wide world from a horse's back, and the soul of the world within my own walls" kind of mood

[motleywolf-et-al]

this is the PERFECT meme for them. of course you know it happened after *ahem* the... incident with civil

it them

[wikitopx]

Here are the top 500 Indian Names!

[toc]

1. Top 500 Indian Names for girls

Abha — Splendor, light

Aditi — Boundless, freedom

Aisha — Alive

Aishwarya — Prosperity, wealth

Akanksha — Desire, wish

Amala — Clean, pure

Amandeep — Peace

Amardeep — Immortal, light

Amarjeet — Immortal, victory

Anima — Minuteness

Anisha — Nightless, sleepless

Anjali — Salutation

Aparajita — Unconquered

Aparna — Leafless

Apurva — New, unpreceded

Aradhana — Worship

Archana — Praisin

Aruna — Reddish brown

Arushi — Hitting, killing

Arya — Aryan, noble

Asha — Wish, desire, hope

Avani — Earth

Azra — Virgin

Bala — Young

Balwinder — Strength, might

Bhavana — Producing, manifesting.

Chanda — Fierce, hot, passionate

Chandra — Moon

Devi — Goddess

Devika — Little goddess.

Diksha — Preparation for a religious ceremony

Dipa — Light, light

Dipali — Row of lamps

Dipti — Brightness, light

Disha — Region, direction

Divya — Divine, heavenly

Diya — lamp, light

Drishti — Sight

Durga — Unattainable

Esha — Desire, wish

Ezhil — Beauty

Fariha — Happy

Gauri — White

Gita — Song

Grishma — Summer

Gul — Flower, rose

Gulbadan — Having a body like a rose

Gulrukh — Rose faced

Gurdeep — Teacher, guru

Gurmeet — Friend

Hema — Golden

Ila — Earth, speech

Inderpal — Protector of Indra

Indira — Beauty

Indrani — Queen of Indra

Indu — Bright drop

Indumathi — Full moon

Isha — Master

Ishani — Ruling, possessing

Ishita — Supremacy

Jaswinder — Fame, praise, glory

Jaya — Victory

Jayashri — Goddess of victory

Jyoti — Light

Jyotsna — Moonlight

Kajal — Lotion for the eyes

Kala — Art form, virtue

Kali — The black one

Kalpana — Imagining, fantasy

Kalyani — Beautiful, lovely, auspicious

Kamakshi — Love, desire

Kamala — Lotus

Kamani — Desirable

Kanchana — Golden

Kanta — Desire, beautiful

Kanti — Beauty

Karishma — Miracle

Kashi — Shining

Kaur — Princess

Kavita — Poem

Khurshid — Shining sun

Khushi — Happiness

Kiran — Dust

Kirtida — One who bestows fame

Laboni — Beauty, loveliness, charm

Lakshmi — Sign, mark

Lalita — Playful, charming, desirable

Lata — Vine, creeping plant

Lavanya — Beauty, grace

Lila — Play, amusement

Lilavati — Amusing, charming, graceful

Lina — Absorbed, united

Madhu — Sweet, honey

Madhur — Sweet

Madhuri — Sweetness

Mala — Necklace

Malati— Jasmine

Malani — Fragrant

Mandeep — Mind, intellect, spirit

Manjeet — Victory, conquering

Manju — Lovely, beautiful

Manjula — Pleasing, beautiful

Manjusha — Small box, small chest

Maya — Illusion

Mina — Fish

Minali — Fish catcher

Mira — Sea, ocean

Mitra — Friend

Mohini — Infatuating

Mridula — Soft, delicate, gentle

Mukta — Liberated, set free

Nalini — Lotus

Namrata — Bowing, humility

Nandita — Joy

Nasim — breeze

Nasrin — Wild rose

Navdeep — New, fresh

Navneet — Eternal

Neha — Love, tenderness

Nida — Call, proclaim

Nikita — House, habitation

Nila — Dark blue

Nirupama — Unequaled, matchless

Nisha — Night

Nishat — Energetic, lively

Nitika — Guidance, moral conduct

Nitya — Always, eternal

Nur — Light

Padma — Lotus

Padmini — Many lotuses

Parvati — Of the mountains

Prachi — Eastern, ancient

Pratibha — Light, splendor, intelligence

Pratima — Image, likeness, reflection

Pritha — The palm of the hand

Priti — Pleasure, joy, love

Priya — Beloved

Priyanka — Agreeable, amiable

Puja — Honor, worship

Purnima — Full moon

Pushpa — Flower

Rachana — Creation, preparation

Radha — Success

Rajani — The dark one

Rajkumari — Princess

Rajni — Queen

Rani — Queen

Rashmi — Ray of sunlight

Rati — Rest, pleasure

Ratna — jewel, treasure

Reshmi — Silk

Reva — One that moves

Richa — Praise, verse, sacred text

Rina — Melted

Ritka — Movement, stream, brass

Ritu — Season, period

Riya — Singer

Roshan — Light, bright

Roshni — Light, brightness

Rupa — Shape, form

Rupinder — Greatest beauty

Sabeen — Follower of another religion

Saira — Traveler

Sakshi — Witness

Sandhya — Twilight

Sanjana — Uniting, joining

Saraswati — Possessing water

Sarita — Flowing

Savitri — Relating to the sun

Shabnam — Dew

Shahnaz — Pride of the king

Shailaja — Daughter of the mountain

Shakti — Power

Shakuntala — Bird

Shanta — Pacified, Calm

Shanti — Quiet, peace, tranquility

Sharmila — Protection, comfort, joy

Shashi — Having a hare

Shikha — Crest, peak

Shila — Conduct, disposition, character

Shivali — Beloved of Shiva

Shobha — Brilliance

Shreya — Superior, best

Shweta — White

Shyama — Dark, black, blue

Siddhi — Accomplishment, success, attainment

Sima — Boundary, limit

Sita — Furrow

Sitara — Star

Sneha — Love, tenderness

Sona — Gold

Sonal — Good color

Sonam — Virtuous

Sukhdeep — Pleasant, happy

Sulabha — Easy, simple, natural

Sultana — Ruler

Suman — Well-disposed

Sumati — Wise, good mind

Sunita — Well-conducted, wise

Suniti — Good conduct

Sushila — Good-tempered, well-disposed

Swapna — Sleep, dream

Swarna — Good color

Tanu — Slender

Tanvi — Slender woman

Tara — Star

Tejal — Brilliance, splendor

Thamarai — Lotus

Trishna — Thirst, desire

Uma — Flax

Upasana — Worship, devotion

Urvi — Wide

Uttara — North

Vaishnavi — Belonging to Vishnu

Varsha — Rain

Vasuda — Granting wealth

Vasudha — Producer of wealth

Vasundhara — Possessor of wealth

Veda — Knowledge

Vidya — Knowledge, science, learning

Vijaya — Victory

2. Top 500 Indian Names for boys

Abbas — Austere

Abdul — Servant of the powerful

Abhay — Fearless

Abhijit — Victorious

Abhilash — Desire, wish

Abhinav — Young, fresh

Abhishek — Anointing

Adil — Fair, honest

Aditya — Belonging to Aditi

Adnan — Settler

Agni — Fire

Ahmad — More commendable

Ajay — Unconquered

Ajit — Invincible

Akash — Open space

Akbar — Greater, greatest

Akhil — Whole, complete

Akshay — Undecaying

Ali — Lofty, sublime

Amandeep — Lamp, light

Amar — Immortal

Amardeep — Immortal

Amarjeet — Victory, conquering

Amin — Truthful

Amir — Commander, prince

Amit — Immeasurable, infinite

Amitabh — Immeasurable splendor

Amrit — Immortal

Anand — Happiness, bliss

Anbu — Love

Anik — Army

Aniket — Homeless

Anil — Air, wind

Aniruddha — Unobstructed, Ungovernable

Anish — Supreme, paramount

Ankit — Marked

Ankur — Sapling

Anuj — Born later, younger

Anup — Watery

Anupam — Incomparable, matchless

Apurva — Upreceded, new

Aravind — Lotus

Arif — Learned, expert

Arijit — Conquering enemies

Aritra — Propelling

Aruna — Reddish brown

Arya — Aryan, noble

Asad — Lion

Ashwin — Possessed of horses

Asim — Boundless, limitless

Aswathi — Sacred fig tree

Avinash — Indestructible

Azad — Free

Azhar — Shining, bright

Aziz — Powerful, respected, beloved

Babur — Tiger

Bala — Young

Balakrishna — Strength, might

Balwinder — Strength, might

Bilal — Wetting, moistening

Chanda — Fierce, hot, passionate

Chandan — Sandalwood

Chandra — Moon

Chandrakant — Beloved by the moon

Chetan — Visible, conscious, soul

Chiranjvi — Long-lived

Darshan — Seeing, observing, understanding

Dayaram — Compassion of Rama

Dev — God

Devadas — Servant of the gods

Dhananjay — Winning wealth

Dharma — Law, duty, virtue

Dhaval — Dazzling white

Durai — Chief, leader

Durga — Unattainable

Eshil — Beauty

Farhan — Happy, cheerful

Farid — Unique, precious

Ghulam — Servant boy

Govinda — Cow finder

Gul — Flower, rose

Gurdeep — Teacher, guru

Gurmeet — Teacher, guru

Hardeep — Lamp, light

Hari — Brown, yellow, tawny

Harsha — Happiness

Harshad — Happiness

Harshal — Happiness

Hasan — Handsome

Hassan — Improver

Imtiyaz — Distinction

Inderpal — Protector of Indra

Indra — Possessing drops of rain

Indrajit — Conquerer of Indra

Isha — Master, lord

Jagit — World, universe

Jahangir — World conqueror

Jaswinder — Fame, praise, glory

Javed — Eternal

Jaya — Victory

Jayanta — Victorious

Jayendra — Lord of victory

Jayesh — Lord of victory

Jaywant — Possessing victory

Jitendra — Conqueror of Indra

Jyoti — Light

Kailash — Crystal

Kali — The black one

Kalyan — Beautiful, lovely, auspicious

Kamala — Lotus

Kanta — Desired, beautiful

Kanti — Beauty

Karan — Clever, skillful

Kavi — Wise man, sage, poet

Khan — King, ruler

Khurshd — Shining sun

Kiran — Dust, thread, sunbeam

Kishor — Colt

Krishna — Black, dark

Kshitij — Born of the earth

Kuldeep — Lamp, light

Lakshmi — Sign, mark

Lal — Boy

Lochan — The eye

Madhu — Sweet, honey

Madhukar — Bee, honey-maker

Madhur — Sweet

Mahendra — Great

Mahmud — Praiseworthy

Mamun — Trustworthy

Manas — Mind, intellect, spirit

Mandeep — Mind, intellect, spirit

Mani — Jewel

Maninder — Mind, intellect, spirit

Manish — Thought, wisdom

Manjeet — Mind, intellect, spirit

Manu — Thinking, wise

Maqsud — Intention, aim

Maruf — Favor, kindness

Mayur — Peacock

Mitra — Friend

Mitul — Measured

Mohandas — Servant of Mohana

Muhammad — Praiseworthy

Mukul — Bud, blossom

Murad — Wish, desire

Murali – Flute

Murugan — Youth

Nadim — Drinking companion

Nagendra — Lord of snakes

Nanda — Joy

Narayana — Path of man

Narendra — Lord of men

Nasim — Breeze

Navdeep — Lamp, light

Navin — New

Navneet — New, fresh

Nikhil — Whole, entire

Nilam — Dark blue, sapphire

Ninad — Sound, hum

Niraj — Water-born

Nirav — Quiet, silent

Nirmal — Clean, pure

Nishant — Night’s end, dawn

Nishat — Energetic, lively

Nitin — Guidance, moral conduct

Nitya — Always, eternal

Nur — Light

Padma — Lotus

Pallav — Budding leaf

Parminder — Highest, best

Partha — Son of Pritha

Prabhat — Shining forth, morning

Prabhu — Mighty, powerful, master

Prabodh — Awakening

Pradip — Light, lantern

Prakash — Light, bright, shining

Pran — Breath

Pranay — Leader, guidance, love

Prasad — Brightness, clearness, graciousness

Prasanna — Clear, bright, tranquil

Prasenjit — Conqueror of an expert army

Pratap — Heat, splendor, glory

Pratik — Look, appearance

Pravin — Skilled

Prem — Love, affection

Punit — Cleaned, purified

Qasim — Share, Divide

Radha — Success

Rafiq — Friend, gentle

Raghu — Swift

Rahul — Able, efficient

Raj — Empire, royalty

Raja — King, ruler

Rajani — The dark one

Rajendra — Lord of kings

Rajesh — Ruler of kings

Rajib — Striped

Rajnish — Lord of the night

Rakesh — Lord of the full moon

Rama — Pleasing, beautiful

Ramachandra — Moon

Rana — King

Ranjit — Colored, pleased, delighted

Rashmi — Ray of sunlight, rope

Ratna — Jewel, treasure

Ravi — Sun

Ravindra — Lord of the sun

Rishi — Sage, poet

Rohan — Ascending

Rohit — Red

Roshan — Light, bright

Rupinder — Greatest beauty

Sachin — True, real

Samir — Wind, air

Sandip — Blazing

Sanjit — Complete victory

Sanjiv — Living, reviving

Saral — Straight

Sardar — Chief, leader

Sarvesh — Ruler of all

Shahid — Witness

Shahjahan — King of the world

Shahnaz — Pride of the king

Shahzad — Prince

Shakti — Power

Shandar — Fabulous

Shantanu — Wholesome

Sharif — Eminent, virtous

Sharma — Protection, comfort, joy

Shashi — Having a hare

Shekar — Crest, peak

Sher — Lion

Shiva — Benign, kind, auspicious

Shresth — Most excellent, best

Shrinivas — The abode of Shri

Shrivatsa — Beloved of Shri

Shyama — Dark, black, blue

Shyamal — Dark, black, blue

Siddhartha — One who has accomplished a goal

Singh — Lion

Sonam — Virtuous

Subhash — Eloquent

Subrahmanya — Good

Sudarshan — Beautiful, good-looking

Sudhir — Good

Suahil — Level, even

Sujay — Great victory

Sukhbir — Pleasant, happy

Sukhdeep — Pleasant, happy

Sultan — Ruler, king

Suman — Well-disposed

Sumantra — Following good advice

Sumit — Well measured

Sunil — Good

Suraj — Sun

Surendra — Lord of gods

Surya — Sun

Sushila — Good-tempered

Swapan — Sleeping, dreaming

Swapnil — Sleep, dream

Swarna — Good color

Tamanna — Wish, desire

Tushar — Cold, frost, snow

Uttara — North

Vasu — Bright, excellent

Vijaya — Victory

Vimal — Clean, pure, spotless

Vinay — Leading, guidance, modesty

Vipin — Forest

Vipul — Large, extensive, plenty

Vishal — Wide, broad, spacious

Vishnu — All-pervasive

Vivek — Wisdom, distinction

Yash — Fame, praise, glory

Yasir — To be rich

Zafar — Victory

Zahid — Pious, devout

Zahir — Helper, supporter

Zaman — Time, age, era

Zawar — Pilgrim, visitor

More ideals for you: Top 100 Korean Names

From : https://wikitopx.com/name-meanings/top-500-indian-names-712009.html

[kindtobechurlish]

Believe it or not, Urukagina’s Code is a big factor, a big breakthrough, when you limit the power in the priesthood, when you limit powers of large property owners, when usury is controlled, as so as theft, murder, and seizure of property, you see the effect of brothel and blackmail. You went to school and that stabilized you in the workplace. I would see two contrast, the scum of White Supremacy and people who could exist a long time with the Scum of White Supremacy, just to then see who are only “subordinates” in the Scum of White Supremacy as they would make their equals, perhaps peers, into gods! Oh, you engaged some fortune telling, some necromancer objects, and you didn’t see any tawny and coarse hair cards, so you want a “good fortune.” Fuck you! Now, you can come to understand why I don’t particularly don’t like statues. People would see a statue and it would become spiritual technology, but over the years the folly proves to be folly. The abominations made with a man’s fingers has eyes but it cannot see, a mouth but it cannot speak, ears but can’t hear, so if people neglect the statue the folly proves to be folly. Now you can come to understand Robert E. Lee at Stone Mountain. Could Black Lives Matter even take in this information? No. Now you understand my struggle, a people would be heirs to slavery and people equate me and they as the same because of a look, and in Johnny’s Boon you see a mirror that exposes Geeks as Geeks. My ancient status would personify a Bailiff, a Vogt, and now you see these slaves as these slaves. A system would be in place, and according to affordable you come to see the plain as the plain. There would be an Assholeeeee who acts like he cares about environment and climate, but it’s all a shill. I expose product waste, by even personifying sales in stores, to then tell you the communist do not wear jeans, and now you see assholes who are stuck on my dick. Fuck you!

[darkestages]

𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔨𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔦𝔰 𝔡𝔢𝔞𝔡; 𝔩𝔬𝔫𝔤 𝔩𝔦𝔳𝔢 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔨𝔦𝔫𝔤

cont. from x

 He navigated the intricate tapestry of royal court intrigue like a spider along the threads of its web, catching bigger flies with elaborate cunning and strategic patience. Destined to live in the shadows of his elder siblings, Leo had been chosen for the ascetic and scholarly life of a clergyman - the grim destination for the superfluous child, the third son. And boy, was he resentful of them - for their intellect combined couldn’t match a fraction of his own, and yet they enjoyed a lifestyle of grandeur, luxury and adulation while he rotted away in monasteries, skulking around like a dog looking for scraps from a wealthy man’s table, clawing his way up the ranks to the corrupt oligarchy of the ecclesia. It wasn’t that he necessarily wanted those things, but the fact that he had to work twice as hard under the crepuscular veil of secrecy in his monastic prison to obtain any recognition or reward truly vexed him.  And now, finally, after years of humiliating and depriving himself, he’d amassed the power, influence and means to change all of this austerity. To break away from the fetters of his forcibly designated life, into the arms of freedom and supremacy. His indifferent father and the oafish peacocks that were his brothers openly supported the current king, who did not enjoy much popularity due to his foolish and extravagant policies that were costing the kingdom’s treasury and taxing the working classes to starvation. Taking the king down would mean their ruin, and his own, glorious ascent. 

 He knew he could not do this alone, not without a good measure of strength and a well-established claim to the throne should the coup succeed. But he had just the man he needed, wrapped around his little finger. A most noble , well-loved knight, known for his valorous feats and dashing looks, who could trace his admirable lineage to one of the ancient families in the kingdom. A family who happened to simply endure the presence of the current king, and who once was at odds with the established dynasty. The populace whispered their name like a secret cult; Leo had eyes and ears all over the kingdom owing to his charitable pursuits, and had caught wind of it. Francis Bonnefoy would be the beautifully ornate iron glove, perfectly fitted to his right hand. Together, they could accomplish greatness.   His lips twitched into the beginnings of a smug bow as the response he hoped for finally came, albeit with caveats, delivered by the rose-blossom lips of the kingdom’s most notorious heartthrob. That was enough for him to set the wheels of his elaborate plan in motion. Oh, what a marvellous dichotomy they were: like the tawny sun and the pale moon, one enjoyed the gilded warmth of daylight, pursuing pleasure and favour, and the other lurked in the tenebrous veil of the night, weaving deceit.  “Of course, I would ask for nothing less. I could not bear to endanger you senselessly.” he reassured the other, savouring the ripe, delicious fruit of his manipulation as he paced around the fireplace; he stood statuary tall, his expression solemn and terrible as the dying flames cast tongues of dancing shadows on the walls, like ghoulish witnesses to their wicked conspiracy.  “I have written down my plan, and I want you to burn it straight after you’ve read it. But I need your full commitment to this.” he arched his eyebrow inquisitively then, fixing his glacial, penetrating gaze on his companion, as if to strip him of all his decorous layers, right down to his power-hungry core.  @thebeautyofliberty

[motleywolf-et-al]

obligatory daily befitzed artshare ig

we are whole

[motleywolf-et-al]

dear eda and el i am not ready.

context:

when i read fool's fate the first time, i was absolutely blind in many ways to what was about to happen - in fact, laughably, i was actually more spoiled about the last trilogy.

i rode the roller coaster of the second half of FF wholeheartedly, without reservation, as open as a buttercup to the spring sun.

there came a certain part. fitz in the ice palace, coming upon... that.

i literally fucking lost my ability to breathe, i kid you not.

the book fell to the floor and i stared for a long time, trying to both catch my breath and comprehend what i was seeing in my mind's eye.

gradually, eventually i breathed, and came back to myself, and picked up the book.

i remember that night taking the book to bed and lying on my left side, experiencing the rest of the chapter. i cried and cried and cried and cried. and the next morning, i took some tylenol to reduce the swelling in my face and taught my class.

tomorrow, i will be here again in my reread. my mental health in this particular moment is not great. i dread it, and i'm tempted to skip over it.

but this time? what is different? what will keep me from descending into the abyss?

yeah, i know what's coming - but what keeps me going is

i know what it means. the intimacy, the interweaving and mingling and merging. the future path. it will be okay, though it will really fucking hurt right now. in the end, it will be okay.

[writemarcus]

BY ANDREW CARLSON

Shakespeare’s Othello disgusted Abigail Adams. After seeing it performed in 1786, she wrote to her sister, “I could not separate the African color from the man, nor prevent that disgust and horror which filled my mind every time I saw him touch the gentle Desdemona.”

In 1835, her son John Quincy was also put off by Desdemona’s “fondling” with Othello, arguing that “the great moral lesson of the tragedy of Othello is, that black and white blood cannot be intermingled in marriage without a gross outrage upon the law of Nature.”

By the time Paul Robeson played the role on Broadway in 1943, Shakespeare’s 1603 tragedy was already a battleground of competing racial ideologies. For his part, Robeson defiantly read Othello as an indictment of white racism. “I am approaching the part as Shakespeare wrote it,” he said, “and I am playing Othello as a man whose tragedy lay in the fact that he was sooty black.” For Robeson, the play was “about the problem of minority groups—a blackamoor who tried to find equality among the whites.”

This month British actors David Oyelowo and Daniel Craig perform Othello at New York Theatre Workshop (Nov. 22, 2016-Jan. 18, 2017) in a political climate of resurgent white supremacy and black resistance. This is familiar ground for U.S. productions of Othello. After all, for more than 200 years, Americans have fought over Othello’s race as a way of fighting over the meanings of race itself, as both the Adamses’ and Robeson’s comments indicate. Recalling the changes in the way this contested classic has been staged and received in this country deepens our understanding of how Shakespeare continues to be racialized today.

The play’s American story did not begin with controversy. The first production of Othello in the U.S. took place in December of 1751 at Robert Upton’s Nassau Street Theatre in New York City. Little is known about this production aside from the fact that audiences could sit in the box, pit, or gallery and that it was performed “By His Excellency’s Permission.” Other early colonial productions of Othello were often justified on moral grounds, revealing the influence of an early American bias. As historian Tilden Edelstein notes, a 1765 Rhode Island production averted an existing local law against theatre by describing Othello as a “Moral Dialogue in Five Parts.” And a 1762 New York production of Othello was rationalized as a fundraiser for “such poor families as are not provided for by the public.”

Though, as with Abigail Adams, many white Americans may have seen the play through a predominantly racial lens, there is little evidence that 18th-century U.S. productions of Othello sparked widespread public debate on race.

Yet in an increasingly race-obsessed 19th-century America that would go to war over slavery, develop a more coherent ideology of white supremacy, and invent blackface minstrel performance, Othello provided a unique opportunity to define American whiteness. What troubled many white people, in short, was that the revered Bard himself had created a noble character who was also black. To acknowledge Othello as black was to taint Shakespeare’s greatness, and to admit the possibility that African Americans could also possess the author’s positive characteristics. Some reconciled Othello’s blackness by seeing it as a flaw of the play or as a cautionary tale about race mixing.

But by the mid- to late 19th-century, it was more common for critics and artists to distance the author and character from contemporary African Americans with a distorted racial logic. Scholar Richard Grant White typified this kind of thinking, saying, “I could never see the least reason for supposing that Shakespeare intended Othello to be represented as a Negro.” Othello was instead described as a “Moor,” in White’s analysis “a warlike, civilized, and enterprising race, which could furnish an Othello, whereas the contrary has always been the condition of the Negroes.”

In 1868 Mary Preston went a step further. “In studying the play of Othello, I have always imagined its hero a white man,” she wrote, concluding that Shakespeare “was too correct a delineator of human nature to have colored Othello black, if he had personally acquainted himself with the idiosyncrasies of the African race.” For these critics, Shakespeare authored the race of the character and the character of race.

Many professional productions also distanced Othello from blackness. Changes in stage makeup standards made the non-black Othello more theatrically achievable. For the first 200 years of Othello’s performance history in England, the character Othello—invariably played by white actors—was depicted with dark makeup. But by 1820, English actor Edmund Kean had normalized a lighter-complexioned “tawny” Moor, initiating what Edelstein describes as the “bronze age of Othello.” On the stage, Othello was depicted as an ethnic “Other,” no doubt, but one still distinct from African Americans.

In 1826 Edwin Forrest became the first famous American-born Othello, debuting a lighter-featured version of the character at the age of 20 (his final performance in the role was in 1872, the year he died). Forrest’s was an Othello for the white working class, passionately performed for crowds at the rowdy Bowery Theatre in New York. He, too, was not intended to be seen as black; indeed, one critic lauded Forrest for avoiding the “popular mistake” that Othello was “of African origin.” One patron famously said after watching him perform, “If that is the way Moors look and talk and love, give me a Moor for my husband.”

In 1871, The New York Times described Edwin Booth’s refined, brooding Othello as a “supple Oriental with a barbaric nature overlaid by a lacquer of Venetian refinement.” Henry Irving’s 1876 touring Othello was not a “savage-looking negro” that would have “disgusted Desdemona,” but a “tawny Moor, with long, straight black hair, and a refined and noble bearing.” Audiences could thus distinguish Othello from African Americans by making “Moors” an invention of white fantasy. In this way, the professional theatre found yet another way to erase and marginalize African Americans. Othello was by, about, and for white people.

Other reviews and productions perpetuated whiteness by normalizing racial absence. Indeed, for many critics and artists, Othello was not about race at all, but about “universal” themes of love and jealousy.

To be sure, when race entered the discussion, these performances generated conflicted meanings. There is evidence that some audience members and critics associated Othello with blackness, despite the efforts of actors and directors to erase it or argue it away. And often this blackness was seen as what went wrong in performance: William Winter chided Irving’s Othello for being “practically black” in his appearance. And when Italian actor Tommaso Salvini traveled to the United States and performed a passionate Othello with darker makeup, some critiqued him for resembling the constructed qualities of the American “negro.” A largely positive 1873 New York Times review of his Othello nevertheless complained that he “makes him a Negro. The peculiar features of that race are not thrust violently upon us, it is true: but still, there they are; Desdemona’s love is an undeniable wooly-headed Negro. This, we may be sure, was not Shakespeare’s conception of Othello.”

On the other hand, Othello was a handy sobriquet when white Americans needed a metaphor for black criminal behavior. African Americans consistently “played” Othello in the white-authored crime blotter: In 1837, one Thomas Little was “charged with enacting the part of ‘Othello, the jealous nigger’” by attempting the “destruction of his wife” when he suspected her of cheating on him. In 1860, a jealous “Othello-colored villain…cut his Desdemona’s throat and threw her into the river.” The National Police Gazette described a “Fatal Row in a Slum” in which “a negro barber” shot “Charlotte Bowman, a white woman” in the chest. Bowman had been in a fight with other women about “who among the women…should receive the caresses of the sooty ‘Othello.’” A cartoon image from Life magazine in 1889 depicted a black man laboring in his prison uniform with a caption that quoted one of Othello’s lines: “I have done the state some service, and they know it.”

Othello was also made black in minstrel adaptations of the play that were popular from the 1830s to the 1860s. As historian David Roediger writes, minstrel performances provided a communal space for wage-earning white males to collectively define what it meant to be white (and male) by circumscribing what it meant to be black. Through pieces such as Desdemonum (1854), Othello; a Burlesque (1866), and Othello Travestie (1834), white performers affirmed their identity by depicting its supposed opposite—in this case, a lazy, stupid, sexual, and violent black Othello. While these performances and practices died out in the 19th century, the image of the degraded black Othello endured throughout the 20th century in popular essays and performance criticism.

When African Americans themselves tried to perform Shakespeare, the police sometimes got involved. William Alexander Brown opened the African Grove Theatre in New York in 1821 and produced many plays by Shakespeare, including Richard III, Othello, and Julius Caesar. Brown’s decision to move his theatre across the street from the Park Theatre was seen as a direct threat to the white establishment—at least, that was the pretext under which law enforcement stormed Brown’s theatre and jailed his black actors. The police magistrate released them only after they promised “never to act Shakespeare again.” Similarly, in 1841, The New York Heraldtold the story of a “stage struck Negro” locked up for quoting Shakespeare in public and released only after vowing “not to spout Shakespeare in the streets.”

By the logic of white supremacy, then, Othello’s race was functional. It changed based on what whites wanted to say about the characteristics of race in general. While the professional “legitimate” theatre barred African Americans from being represented, let alone representing themselves, onstage, the popular press and minstrel stage depicted the black Othello as subhuman, peddling fear of miscegenation and racial violence.

In the face of this insult and injury, the African Grove offered salient resistance. The theatre’s star, James Hewlett, was the first African American on record to play Othello; Hewlett directly challenged white ownership of Shakespeare by calling himself “Shakespeare’s Proud Representative.” When English actor Charles Mathews mocked Hewlett’s Shakespearean dialect, Hewlett challenged him in a public letter: “Our bard Shakespeare makes sweet Desdemona say, ‘I saw Othello’s visage in his mind.’ Now when you were ridiculing the ‘chief black tragedian,’ and burlesquing the ‘real negro melody,’ was it my ‘mind,’ or my ‘visage,’ which should have made an impression on you?” Hewlett further argued that Shakespeare’s intent with the role was to critique racial prejudice.

Historian Errol Hill outlines the rich history of black Shakespeareans in his book Shakespeare in Sable: A History of Black Shakespearean Actors, describing the many African-American artists who performed Shakespeare throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Like Hewlett, many of these actors used the Bard’s cultural status as a way of asserting their humanity.

Indeed, another actor who started at the African Grove, Ira Aldridge, would make an even larger impact. For many in the black press, Aldridge’s career served as living refutation of white racist attitudes about ­African-American inferiority, crucially broadcast on the world stage—Aldridge became famous for performing great Shakespearean roles in Europe (as depicted in Lolita Chakrabarti’s 2012 play Red Velvet). In celebrating Aldridge’s story, African Americans exposed the lie of minstrelsy. The black playwright and journalist Willis Richardson later commented in Opportunity that “representation of Negroes on the stage above the role of buffoon seem recently to have been weakened considerably” because of people like Aldridge, who “throughout his career…­carried himself with distinction.” John E. Bruce, a former slave and cofounder of the Negro Society for Historical Research, wrote that Othello was “the Negro whom Shakespeare created, to be portrayed as only such a consummate artist as Aldridge could portray and interpret the character.” Aldridge’s African-American Othello evinced nobility, intelligence, and accomplishment—a resounding counterpoint to nearly a century of discrimination and minstrelsy.

African Americans also used the authority of Shakespeare to argue for black equality. Carter G. Woodson, founder of The Journal of Negro History, said that through Othello “Shakespeare…showed that he believed in equality not only of the blacks, but of all men.” In a 1923 essay in The New York Amsterdam News, Jamaican-American author J.A. Rogers wrote that “Shakespeare, when he created Othello with such stateliness and pride, taught that color had no effect on character.”

When Robeson stepped on the stage of Broadway’s Shubert Theatre in 1943, white and black conceptions of Othello came to a head. The white literary editor of The Nation, Margaret Marshall, argued that Robeson’s blackness disqualified him from being “the Moor as Shakespeare conceived him,” but most of the black press came to the opposite conclusion. W.E.B. Du Bois, for instance, argued that Robeson’s Othello “was undoubtedly the type Shakespeare had in mind.”

For all the pride of claiming Shakespeare and Othello from white interpretations, Robeson’s triumph raised new questions that have since dominated discussions of the play. While the production effectively changed normative casting practices by making Othello almost exclusively a role for actors of black African descent, many have wondered if that was a mixed blessing. In 1944, Langston Hughes’s satirical faux-naif “Jesse B. Semple” character worried in The Chicago Defender about the message it sent to see Paul Robeson “slap a white woman in front of all them people in that theatre.” Othello expert and historian Virginia Mason Vaughan states the problem succinctly: “When we remember that Othello is a wife murderer…there is a danger in making the Moor stand for all black males.”

Indeed, this takes us back to the play itself: Once we peel back the levels of performance history and racist interpretations around it, is Shakespeare’s Othello itself a fatally flawed, white supremacist fantasy? Is it no more than a kind of high-toned minstrel show—a white-authored idea of violent blackness that has as little to do with real African Americans as the black Othellos of the 19th century?

While the overt racism of 19th-century tabloids may be less common today, Othello as a white supremacist trope still surfaces. In the 1990s, for instance, the case of O.J. Simpson and the murder of his white wife provided a new pretext for the old allusion to the Moor as black criminal: During the infamous “white Bronco” chase, news anchor Dan Rather famously made the O.J./Othello link. This too-easy analogy led to a reverse impulse, though: Film critic Roger Ebert complained about the 1995 movie of Othello, starring Laurence Fishburne, that “with the fates of O.J. and Nicole Simpson projected like a scrim on top of the screen, it is difficult to free the play to do its work.” The play’s work was not about “interracial love,” Ebert argued, a subject he claimed “was not much on Shakespeare’s mind.” In a recent Folger Shakespeare Library podcast, Shakespeare scholars Ayanna Thompson and Ian Smith discussed their confrontations with scholars and critics who, like Ebert, “police the borders of Shakespeare studies” this way, by insisting that Othello “is not about race.”

But to focus on Shakespeare’s intent is a trap, falsely anointing a dead playwright as the ultimate authority on the racial meanings of Othello today. Contemporary Shakespeare productions that erase race through constructions of “Shakespeare’s intent” misunderstand that theatre is an exchange of meaning between performers and audiences in the present moment. A Shakespeare performance is not a magical realm where race stops signifying, but an opportunity to intentionally challenge whiteness.

In the U.S., the meanings of Othello and Shakespeare have been created through the language and practice of white supremacy. Some of the mantle has been shaken off, as African Americans have fought and continue to fight these interpretations, but troubling resonances have remained.

As we turn our eyes to New York ­Theatre Workshop’s new production—with a Nigerian-British Othello and a white American director, Sam Gold—we anticipate the next turn in the unfolding story of Othello and race in America.

Andrew Carlson teaches theatre at the University of Texas at Austin and serves as managing director of the Oscar G. Brockett Center for Theatre History and Criticism.

[motleywolf-et-al]

*snicker* 😉😏

lord golden and tom badgerlock… 

[kindtobechurlish]

The Scum of White Supremacy would personify itself, and then there is the contrast that can get around the scum, and they are personified by shoe. A mongoloid would have all the hours and the checks that personifies, but the churl would be the churl. Oh, you are from asia and you see things that fit, and you are tawny as I am tawny. I’m all about sales, as you are a retarded mongoloid that just wants a camp fire. Why did an immigrant mongoloid move here? He is immigrant, so he needs what I need more than me? FUCK YOU! You would see that I’m pretty clear in personifying who I don’t like, from your favorite leader to that woman, and that woman, and now you have platform and I have platform. I can go out and engage, and by your day and what I said you talk your cant that is short lived. How does it feel you are trying to convey to yourself that you are better than me, as I am plagued by stumbling blocks like bluegum and gater-bate? I would have the mind to do something, and all of my actions has led me to saying fuck a pinhead. The pinhead can’t even make jacking off attractive, all he did was give me words like Neo-Nazi and mercenary, and I thought he would be about business. He isn’t about business, he wants to better USA like he is its president. More time for Joe Biden to figure it out? You are just like him. “Western Partners.” YOU FUCKING PINHEAD, FUCK YOU!

You have a man get in politics, and he is more interested in hiding that he will age verses keeping the body and manner that got him the position. Have you seen all the shit a chef does to make that unique dish? How are your shits? I’ve eaten nice, and the shits are not all that. I KNOW! The shadow that the pinhead produces would be the shadow that he produced yesterday, except the food he ate made his shadow change. Now he sees his shadow and thinks Obama because it’s Black. You never thought you could gauge a man by his shadow? Well, I would expose “western partners” and I did all I did to combat racialism, just to find that a pinhead cares more about hiding that he is aging verses his body that would personify or hide age. You remember pinhead before Zelenskyy? Now, the pinhead thinks I am too shrewd for calling him a pinhead, and I need to consider everything and condemn women. Well, I said I am coming up with a moral, if a woman can’t do nothing for me now I’m not doing anything for her later. If a woman displays integrity for me - that integrity is not means for all these other “Barbie’s”, these sex toys, to just come about in my life and I save them in exchange for sex and a baby. When will not tonight become habit? Bitch! They can go and do a porn without condom, and make a contract that the father can be a dead beat as they continue to be in industry: be like Sarah Jay. If she is White, she’ll be ok because all White Women in the industry look the same, “typical white chick”, and they are naked. Instead of sitting on my dick, to get a payout, but only after another woman does it, duck duck goose, why don’t you go to a breeding farm and make contract. Pregnant porn is a thing.

[motleywolf-et-al]

it truly is like watching a wreck on the highway that you saw coming but you just can't look away from it 👀

nothing worse than watching people slowly approach fool's fate on their rote read throughs. they don't know meme.jpg they dont know that they're about to read something that is soooo so tragic and fucked up that they'll never stop thinking about it ever

[motleywolf-et-al]

the most reliable source of dopamine in my life. whew that first hit tho. ask me about that sometime.

[motleywolf-et-al]

🫠🥵🤤

What Lord Golden does with his servant at night…

[motleywolf-et-al]

did... did he just...? ohhhhh yes he did

I just. insane behavior