Please don't jump on me for this, as it's but my own two cents, and it's a distinct possibility that nobody will agree with me. It doesn't really bother me that Tolkien had prejudices, I mean, everybody does. Although Tolkien was amazing, he had flaws just like everyone else. I'm not justifying racism; actually, people won't say anything racist near me for fear that I'll bite their heads off, but if Tolkien was racist, it doesn't really matter, since it's his own personal opinion, and we have to respect that, even if we don't agree with it.
However, the way I see the whole thing with the scymitars is that they are awsome weapons whose name sounds different from our own tongue; that difference sounding harsher and more wild than other weapons, just as orcs are to the other races. Also the way that the blades work and how they look less refined than a simple sword adds to that bit of foreigness that orcs seem to have in spades.
In short, whether Tolkien was racist or not, everything he put in his books was there for a reason, whether it was onomonopoetic, alliteratory, or simply stuck in for a bit of humour. He wrote to entertain people and to make them think, so it seems, and just by seeing this thread, you can tell that it worked.
~Fea
By the way: I pronounce it sim-a-TAR
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