Minorities In Othello

Ethnic minorities in high positions of leadership are becoming the highest growing and highest earning individuals in business. Their growth is attributed to their success in running and operating their businesses with solid leadership. These ethnic minorities often rank higher in many leadership measures over non-minorities. In the play Othello, Othello succeeds as a general thanks to his contacts and performance in his position. He makes himself a great example when he leads his crew through a rough storm and persevering against the Turkish fleet. However, racism is prominent in the workplace and in the play. In the workplace, blatant discrimination and racial remarks are well known by those minorities especially in a majority-driven business. In Othello, Iago’s psychopathy and stigma against Othello are more reactive than spoken attempting to get his reputation ruined and his job lost. Although Shakespeare misrepresents minorities in high positions in that those minorities are successful and well-liked by subordinates, he accurately depicts minorities in high positions today in the play Othello because racism continues to exist in the workplace and Othello is found to be an overall effective leader. Minorities face
discrimination in the workplace even after employment regardless of their skill or performance in that position. Minority business leaders are no exception often facing remarks from their higher-ups regarding promotions despite their potential qualifications (Vega). However, Othello faces none of these challenges and is loved by his superiors. When called in front of the senators for the first time, the Duke calls upon the “valiant Othello, we must straight employ you” without a question of his ability (Shakespeare 1.3.48). Shakespeare implies in Othello that minorities do not endure the implicit bias and microaggressions that many see on the workroom floor on a day-to-day basis. These biases are typically why “a [Caucasian] male employee might be rewarded for being outspoken while an [African-American] female employee might be considered "uppity", or out of line, for the same behavior” (Vega). Iago is the only character in the play to act out on such microaggressions against Othello attempting to ruin his reputation with his superiors. Ethnic minorities tend to face these mentions of discriminatory and racial remarks regardless of how well qualified in what they are tasked to do and Shakespeare presents minorities in Othello incorrectly to the bias they have faced for decades. As a matter of fact, ethnic minorities and minority-owned businesses have shown to perform exceedingly better than non-minority owned businesses.
In studies comparing African-American to Caucasian supervisors, “[African-American] supervisors were ranked significantly higher or more favorably than [Caucasian] supervisors on three of the four managerial leadership measures (managerial support, goal emphasis, and work facilitation)” (Okozi). In connection to the play Othello, Othello is statistically more likely to perform better as general than those in the majority. Montano praises the news of Othello persevering against the Turks saying, “pray he be; for I have served him, and the man commands like a full soldier” (Shakespeare
2.1.38-40).