To what extent does Othello deal with issues of prejudice and discrimination?

Othello does not deal with issues of prejudice and discrimination--that's the ironic part of the whole play. One might think that a character like Othello, often (at least behind his back), the brunt of discriminatory comments--such as "thick lips" and the innumerable references to him and his sexuality as being bestial), would be more sensitized to prejudice, but he is not. Iago suggests that the women of his country are all of ill-repute, and Othello falls right into Iago's trap and thinks that all Venetian women, Desdemona included, are strumpets (prostitutes) at heart, as the stereotype suggests. He does not think that Desdemona could be anything but a subtle "whore of Venice", even though, by his own admission, she looks nothing like a prostitute. He buys into the stereotype so well that he calls Emilia simple when she says that Desdemona is virtuous. Instead of questioning his assumptions, he says he thinks that Desdemona must be a very cunning whore to trick Emilia as well as him. Prejudice and discrimimation are rampant in the play, not only from a black and white perspective, but also from the perspective of class and gender.