As far as Shakespeare's racial stereotypes go, it's worth also remembering that "jealous and intemperate" was pretty common for all his Mediterranean characters - Romeo and Juliet for the most obvious example.

Not sure about many of those quotes. "Black" is used by Shakespeare as a descriptor meaning 'evil' of characters whose skin would not have been black, and the Duke's point is that Othello is "more fair than black", which would not be true about his skin.

'Greek' is not a race. The Spartans (effectively) enslaved the people of the surrounding area. It's hard for me to square the idea of Greek / non-Greek with the concept of race. Can you show that this idea was related to genetics and not simply nationality?

@DJClayworth The Duke's point is that Othello is virtuous despite being black. I think it rather stretches credulity to claim that, shortly after establishing the dichotomy of black Othello vs white Desdemona, calling him "fairer than black" had no implications about his skin colour. One could readily see that a double meaning is intended here.

@JimmyJames Race is a social construct, not "genetics". You're applying your personal contemporary concept of it to antiquity - racial classification by phenotype is a modern development. Even today there is no clear consensus for a definition of race, so this is just going to be arguing over semantics. But if you didn't know, Spartan helots were effectively serfs, and Greek slaves were very often imported from Asia or Africa.

@Semaphore 'Race is a social construct, not "genetics"'. It's a social construct built on an (incorrect) theory of genetics. Unless you think that a person of Greek ancestry from Egypt was considered not Greek then I really have no idea what your point is here. "Racism is a very ancient concept." or it's "contemporary concept", I'm lost.

I also don't think that Shakespeare is relevant since he was from the colonial period and was living in the time that these concepts are understood to have been developed. Colonialism pre-dates the English settlement in North America.

@JimmyJames Again, there's no consensus definition for race, and again, you're applying a very narrowminded view of "race" to a clearly inapplicable time period. In my view, the type underlying prejudice is clearly identifiable since the beginning of history, regardless of your preferred label. However, if you insist that race/racism only came into existence in 1905, then obviously we can only agree to disagree. Either way, this is pointless semantical nitpicking.

@Semaphore "OP asked about a claim that there was no "race" or "racism" during the colonial period, specifically the 1660s". I guess that's a fair interpretation but I read 'times past' in the title to mean 'prior to'.

@Semaphore "Again, there's no consensus definition for race, and again, you're applying a very narrowminded view of "race" to a clearly inapplicable time period." No, what I am saying is that you can't have 'racism' without a concept of 'race'. You claim that 'racism' is ancient but I don't see anything to back up that claim. My understanding is that the concept of 'race' was formed during the colonial period. The concept of the 'other' is clearly ancient but is not equivalent to racism.

@JimmyJames The English word race may have appeared in your "colonial period", whether the concept was new or not depends on what you think the concept is. I don't know why you can't seem to understand me when I say it's a matter of definitions which we do not agree on, but the comments is no place to hash this out.