1.  Bloom, Harold.  Shakespeare: The  Invention of the Human, New York: Penguin, 1998, p. 475.

2.  Heidegger, Martin. Basic Questions of Philosophy: Selected  "Problems"of "Logic,"  trans. Richard Rojcewicz and Andre Schuwer, Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1994, p.10.

3.  In terms of a value system like "human rights" the logic of Aristotle has caused more problems than it has easily solved.  Catharine MacKinnon notes ("Crimes of War, Crimes of Peace," On Human Rights: Oxford Amnesty Lectures 1993, ed. Stephen Shute and Susan Hurley, New York: Basic Books, 1993, p.95) "Women were not citizens in Greek democracy; they were wives, slaves, prostitutes.  In this setting, Aristotle formulated his equality [truth] principle as treating likes alike and unlikes unalike--a concept fundamentally unquestioned since, in the international human rights context."  We can see here how the effective definition of truth as fitting into a programmed system of logic induces not only inequality, but rape, terror, mutilation, dismemberment, and death.  MacKinnon here speaks of the atrocities committed against Muslims and Croatians by Serbian troops.

4.  Basic Questions,  p.15-6.

5.  Ibid., p.16.

6.  Evans, G. Blakemore. The Riverside Shakespeare .  Boston: Houghton  Mifflin, 1974,  p. 1215 ( II. iii. 32).  All following references to the play will be from this edition of the text, and will be cited in the text using the common citation format.

7.  Butcher, Philip. "Othelloís Racial Identity." Shakespeare Quarterly, vol.3, #3 (Jul., 1952), 243-247.  Butcher methodically cites examples from the text of blackness as it occurs: "Roderigo alludes to him as 'the thick-lips' (I.i.66).  Iago speaks of him as an 'old black ram' (I.i.88).  Brabantio refers to Othelloís 'sooty bosom' (I.ii.70).  The Duke of Venice consoles Brabantio:

    If virtue no delighted beauty lack,
    Your son-in-law is far more fair than black.
           (I.iii.290-1)

Speaking of Othelloís friend, Cassio, Iago calls the Moor 'black Othello' (II.iii.33).  After Iago has planted the seeds of jealousy and Othello is considering possible reasons for Desdemonaís suspected infidelity, he says, 'I am black' (III.iii.263).  Later he remarks of Desdemona:

    Her name, that was as fresh
     As Dianís revenge, is now begrimed and black
     As mine own face.  (III.iii.384-86)

When Othello tells Emilia that he has slain his wife, she says, 'O more the angel she, and you the blacker devil' (V.ii.130-31)."  These references are just a sampling, as Butcher himself notes.  What is important to keep in mind is the constant and rather innocuous way that these references are made. They are accepted and they are seen as normal modalities of speech.

8.  Ibid. p. 246.

9.  Lievsay, John L. "Shakespeare and Foreigners." William Shakespeare: His World.  ed. John Andrews, New York: Scribnerís 1985,  p. 237.  Lievsay continuously mentions the fact that people of color in London  at the time were seen to be very different than the English based upon the stylistically outrageous and adventurous stories told by the returning travelers and explorers.  This allowed the public to be persuaded very easily in viewing these people within certain systems of characterizations.  Shakespeare, as well, would have read these travelogues and dispatches from the explorers and must himself have been apt to take up these generalizations  to provide a common backdrop from which characters could be identified by.

10.  Scobie, Edward. Black Britannia: A History of Blacks in Britain.  Chicago: Johnson Pub.Co., 1972, p. 5-11.  This act goes in conjunction with Elizabethís decree in 1600 , which required the exportation of Africans from the realm.

11.  Butcher, p. 247.

12.  Sewell, Arthur. Character and Society in Shakespeare.  Oxford: Clarendon, 1951, p. 92-7.  Sewell continues by interestingly enough  relating this differing worldviews between Othello and the Venetians saying, "in the bulk of the play, these Venetians are seen by Shakespeare form the outside, they are seen as they behave; whereas Othello is seen from within, he is seen as he is" (94).  Sewell is distinguishing between the truth of the Venetians which remains base in normative conduct, and Othello who is seen not only "as he is," almost phenomenologically, but he is seen as being corrupted by the same system he wished to understand and devoted himself honorably too.  Sewell sets up, as Harold Bloom does in the epigraph, Othello as having a value to the Venetians, yet he does not understand that, in essence, he is being used.  The only reason (and this is conjecture) he is allowed to take Desdemonaís hand is because of the imminent war brewing with the Turks near Cyprus.  Othello is needed, he has a value that is put on him from the outside, not from the inside.  Iago, as Sewell argues, is the opposite--he knows "nothing of value," only use.

13.  Williams, Raymond. The Sociology of Culture. New York: Schocken Books, 1982, p. 158.  Williams reminds the reader that when looking at the totality of all social productions within a given society or system, the truth will always arise from within the most implicitly non-political.  Yet these "non-political" forums are actually at a much deeper level, structurally, than any new political philosophy or action will allow it to be explicitly.  The "non-political" forums allow dissent to ferment, from which political philosophy and action, which reside at the superstructural level, arise and become the explicit determinations of aesthetic experience.

14.  Valensi, Lucette. The Birth of the Despot: Venice and the Sublime Porte.  trans. Arthur Denner. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1987, p.87.  Valensi also concludes, in conjunction with Braudelís estimations that the Ottoman Empire was quickly declining due to the politically tyrannical ambitions of its leaders and the bloodthirsty methods in which they consolidated their power (killing off brothers and sisters, family members they deemed dangerous).  Thus as the Ottoman rule was becoming more and more despotic the, strength of the other European states (England, Spain, Holland, Austria, Venice) was steadily growing, though they as well had growing pains of their own.

15.  Bullough, Geoffrey. Narrative and Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare: Vol. VII. London: Routledge, 1973, p. 212-13.  Bullough here also states some of the history that was found in Knolles that Shakespeare would have more than likely read.  This specific episode occurred in  April 1571 when the Turkish admiral Piall Basha, sent to "keep the Venetians from sending aid to Cyprus," attacked Tenedos, then desisted, for his superior, Mustapha, "had before appointed Piall Bassa  at a time prefixed to meet him in Rhodes" (213).  Shakespeare was obviously ignorant that Rhodes was already in Turkish control and asks the Senator consider (then reject) the "possibility that they were going to attack that island (I.iii.17-30)."

16.  Skilliter, S.A. William Harborne and the Trade with Turkey: 1578-1582. London: Oxford UP, 1977, p. 143.  The Sultaniye (head wife, and Sultan mother) corresponded three times with Elizabeth in the late 16th century.  The letters were amicable and stressed the importance of good relations between the Turks and the English considering there was much wealth and power at stake for both parties involved (demise of common enemy, Spain).  Elizabeth, being the shrewd politician she was, was consolidating assurances from the Sultan so that the Mediterranean waters would be free for English ships bringing goods to and from other nations.  Elizabeth saw this relationship as crucial for the further strengthening of English trade routes and garnering of wealth.

17.  Matar, Nabil. Turks, Moors, and Englishmen in the Age of Discovery. New York: Columbia UP, 1999, p. 13.  Matar stresses the importance of the perceptions and logic used by the English to differentiate the Other: "it is important to note here that the creation of this alterity was chiefly undertaken within literary, theological [and philosophical] contexts," (13).  Matar maintains that it was in the popular cultural discourse that racism and stereotyp-ification occurred.  The official government record, prison files, commercial exchanges were neutral in this respect.  Matar continues by saying that, "While the national consciousness of many European countries was being forged in the late medieval and Renaissance periods, the foremost enemy was identified as Muslim, and the foremost hero was the 'ancestral' fighter against the 'infidels,'" (13).  Thus we can obviously deduce that Othello was one of these "cultural discourse[s]" that solidified racial stereotypes.

18.  Poisson, Rodney. "Which Heaven has Forbid the Ottomites."  Shakespeare Quarterly, vol. 18 #1 (Winter, 1967), 67-70.

19.  Pamuk, Orhan. The Black Book. trans. Guneli Gun. New York: Harcourt, 1994. p. 37.