"Dark-skinned LoTR baddies mean Tolkien was racist!" (Barf alert)

The Guardian ^ | 2 December 2002 | John Yatt

[Tomalak]

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[Paul Atreides]

First of all, this person needs to get a life. Second, he needs to take some courses on how to write.

[k2blader]

Yatt needs to cut down on the fizzy pop.

[Conan the Librarian]

If I remember The Two Towers right (and I do) Tolkien was very sensetive to the Harradrim (people of the south with dark skin) When Sam came across one that was dead he commented on how young he was and wondered if he really believed what his leaders were doing was right. Tolkien always looked at humans as equal...but some that have been corrupted by Melkor or Sauron or Saurman. They were the evil not the humans.

[DoctorMichael]

Essays with similar criticisms of Tolkien's "closet racism" were published last year and posted here at FR...............just before The Fellowship of the Ring went on to become a mega hit among theatre-goers worldwide.

[Eternal_Bear]

It's supposed to be a fantasy! There are no orcs, elves or dwarves!

[weegee]

He ignores the religious beliefs of Tolkien and goes straight to the race card.

There are those who looked at the WTC towers on 9/11 (and the people falling out of the buildings) and saw the plane flying full throttle into the building and saw undeniable evil.

Here's an example of those who would question just what they saw. There is no black and white, only shades of grey. What happend on September 11th, 2001 was bad but... < /sarcasm >

[Notforprophet]

Already posted here.

[Hodar]

Weren't the barrow wrights pale white skinned creatures.

[Notforprophet]

If you had searched on the original title of the article, rather than post it under your own, you'd have noticed that.

[docmcb]

Hmm. Could it possibly have anything to do with JRRT's purpose in writing? which was to write a mythology for his own part of the world, i.e. northwestern Europe? I haven't read the Indian epics recently, but my recollection is that the heroes are all, well, Indians.

Please, this politically correct bs has already gone way too far. I suppose you are one of those who labels HUCK FINN a racist book?

[denydenydeny]

This is the same thing as wondering why there weren't any black people in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. It's a story based on ethnic folklore. But this moron feels the need to impose twenty-first century standards on it.

Words cannot express my total contempt for this kind of racist stupidity.

[xlib]

Let's see; the fellowship consisted of 2 men (3 if you count Gandalf), 4 hobbits, a dwarf and an elf. Sounds like a multiculturalist dream team to me...

[FReepaholic]

Sauruman the WHITE was evil.

[KriegerGeist]

"It's supposed to be a fantasy! There are no orcs, elves or dwarves!"

That is true, but liberals and the "lookin to be offended" can find racist dwarves, racist elves, racist orcs, racist wizzards, racist hobbits, racist Numenorians, racist Gondorans, racist Riders of Rohan...et. al...even in a fantasy.

Snow White was probably a racist, and Cindarella was probably an elitist, Robin Hood was a liberal Democrat, Pinochio was making fun of Al Gore as a boy...and on it goes

[HairOfTheDog]

This is a duplicate thread.... FYI

Wraiths and Race: A Guardian Columnist says LOTR is "racist" ^

[big'ol_freeper]

What a....

[The Iguana]

Beat you to it: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/799358/posts

[The Iguana]

He ignores the religious beliefs of Tolkien and goes straight to the race card.

Given that Tolkien was a devout, orthodox (pre-Vatican II) Catholic, I doubt that would help Tolkien's case in this court of opinion.

[weegee]

My point is that if this critic is going to look for symbolism in the subtext, there are larger issues at play in the story (or so I've been told). Best to look for the intended symbolism than the modern context reapraisal.