Racism and Tolkien.

[Galadriel55]

Originally Posted by Ulvenok

On the topic of racism, of course Tolkien was a racist and so are you. I saw a lecture about predjudices held by some neuro scientist. Anyway racism is in all of us, we are all hostile towards people who are different than ourself, and that for a good reason. If Tolkien would have been a black person writing these books in Africa the orcs would be white devils and the elves would be tall black men. Even if you say you're not a racist you're lying to yourself, because you are. Just like we got different tastes in music we got different tastes when it comes to appearances. Of course one can get over these differences if one gets to know that person, but on a very primal level we are all racists even Tolkien which is apparent reading his books.

There's racism and there's racial differences. Please don't confuse the two. Saying that black people are black is like saying that the BD webite is black-and-green themed. Saying that they aren't black is like saying that our site is pink with purple polkadots. There's a difference between saying a fact and insulting people because of their skin colour or origin.

In the same way that a Chinese man will remain Chinese no matter how many times you'll say that he's Ukrainian, an Easterling or a Southron would remain just as Tolkien described them.

If you think that Tolkien was racist because his antagonists resembled Eastern/African people, read The Silmarillion. You hate some Elves more than you hate orcs. And there's the story of Bor - a rare thing indeed, but still.

And what do you think of the Druedain then? They are the most ugly (and suffering from racism within the legendarium as well!) but the most bestest people from the free folk.

EDIT: xed with Zigur and Inzil