On last night's BBC Newsnight Review Lenny Henry was interviewed about his current stage role as Othello and he amazingly managed to bring Stephen Lawrence into the conversation!He was using Lawrence to demonstrate (once again) how racist Britain is.
If Britain really was as racist as Henry makes out then this third rate totally unfunny comedian would not have made his living all these years on stage and TV but would probably be shining shoes (or something like) now.
On the subject of Othello, both Newsnight and Henry blathered on about the character being black. This is not so. In the excellent book 'Shakespeare, The Biography' by Peter Ackroyd - that I just so happen to be reading at the moment - Ackroyd says 'It is a mistake to consider Othello to be of African or West Indian origin, ... he was of Moorish stock, olive skinned'.
Newsnight and Henry are not stupid (not sure about Henry there actually) and they must know this, they are just perpetuating the myth.
Shame on them all.
3 comments:
LOL! Great post, and straight to the point. If theres one thing that grinds my gears it's that St. Stephen of Eltham!
Not so long back when a community centre named after him was attacked, the media went into a frenzy blaming Nick Griffin and the BNP.
A few days later when CCTV footage revealed at least one of the attackers were black the story was quietly withdrawn!
You will get 7 years jail just for pissing on his plaque!
Lenny Henry and Othello?
James:
'fraid so.
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