It occurs to me that in one of his letters to Christopher Tolkien, JRRT criticises the racism that was prevalent in South Africa in the 1940s. His comments may be found in a letter dated 18th April, 1944 (
Letters #61), and read as follows.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by J.R.R. Tolkien
As for what you say or hint of 'local' conditions: I knew of them. I don't think they have much changed (even for the worse). I used to hear them discussed by my mother; and have ever since taken a special interest in that part of the world. The treatment of colour nearly always horrifies anyone going out from Britain, & not only in South Africa. Unfort. not many retain that generous sentiment for long.
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I find this contrast between the apparent superiority of the Numenoreans, which looks like a eugenic argument, and this privately expressed sentiment very interesting. However, the 'lesser men' with whom the people of Gondor mingled their blood included the ancestors of the Rohirrim, and the racism proponents hold them up as examples of aryan protagonists (Tolkien would not, since to him
Aryan was a linguistic term referring to the Indo-Iranian languages).
Clearly the Numenoreans are 'high men' in terms of being closely associated with the Elves and more aware of Eru and the Valar. Their longevity appears not to be entirely genetic; rather it seems to rely on the moral stance that death is the gift of the One to Men. The moral and cultural fall of the Numenoreans in Akallabeth, which is bound up with a growing intolerant pride in their own culture, implies to me that Tolkien was a long way from propounding the sort of supremacist thinking that Dr. Shapiro sees in his work (that which assumes moral superiority on ethnic grounds), but the existence of a sub-division of humanity that are practically supermen does put him on dangerous ground in today's intellectual climate. The article that provoked this thread is symptomatic of the contemporary cultural scene. However, it seems more interesting to me that when Tolkien says 'race' he means 'species': Elves are a race, Dwarves are a race and Men are a race; and throughout LotR Men are just Men: be that men of Harad, men of Gondor, Southrons or Easterlings. Of course that would tend to fuel the sister-claim of sexism, but that's a different issue.