Racism and Tolkien.

[William Cloud Hicklin]

Originally Posted by blantyr

I wouldn't go that far. The elves and some men descended from Numenor knew something of 'The Art' while other races could only learn degraded forms of magic. Certain cultures had more attractive life styles and values than others.

I'd also note a great deal of segregation in Middle Earth. The men of Rohan and Gondor spoke ill of the Lady of the Golden Wood. Galadriel and Fangorn lived very near to one another's borders for Ages, yet never visited one another. King Aragorn forbade Big Folk from entering the Shire.

I believe one theme of LoTR is that the cultures were diverse enough that various free people might best live totally separated from one another, and yet each of these free people could recognize The Enemy when the time came. They didn't unite under a single government, but they contributed, each in their own way.

This trend for diverse cultures to live apart from one another, to recognize and honor borders while not encountering those living on the other side of the borders, is not the same as what we see in the real world. Still, it is worth noting.

Tolkien believed strongly in true multiculturalism- as in, having a multiplicity of cultures in the world. He was strongly against 'multiculturalism' in its modern connotation, which to him meant mixing all the cultures together until everything was just the same flavorless blended monoculture the world over. "The bigger things get the smaller and duller or flatter the globe gets. It is getting to be all one blasted little provincial suburb. At any rate it ought to cut down travel. There will be nowhere to go."