Tolkien the racist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In the wake of the anniversary of J.R.R. Tolkien's 120th birthday, we had the usual debate over Tolkien's racism. Of course, racism is the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2012\/01\/tolkien-the-racist.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tolkien the racist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the wake of the anniversary of J.R.R. Tolkien's 120th birthday, we had the usual debate over Tolkien's racism. Of course, racism is the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2012\/01\/tolkien-the-racist.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Daffey Thoughts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-01-07T12:09:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dave Griffey\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dave Griffey\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2012\/01\/tolkien-the-racist.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2012\/01\/tolkien-the-racist.html\",\"name\":\"Tolkien the racist\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-01-07T12:09:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-01-07T12:09:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/#\/schema\/person\/9de3f33a0818ebc53727444b649c82a7\"},\"description\":\"In the wake of the anniversary of J.R.R. Tolkien's 120th birthday, we had the usual debate over Tolkien's racism. Of course, racism is the\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2012\/01\/tolkien-the-racist.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2012\/01\/tolkien-the-racist.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2012\/01\/tolkien-the-racist.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Tolkien the racist\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/\",\"name\":\"Daffey Thoughts\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/#\/schema\/person\/9de3f33a0818ebc53727444b649c82a7\",\"name\":\"Dave Griffey\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/546cf1ab64797c201cc8ad19185f2e57?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/546cf1ab64797c201cc8ad19185f2e57?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dave Griffey\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/author\/dgriffey\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Tolkien the racist","description":"In the wake of the anniversary of J.R.R. Tolkien's 120th birthday, we had the usual debate over Tolkien's racism. Of course, racism is the","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2012\/01\/tolkien-the-racist.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Tolkien the racist","og_description":"In the wake of the anniversary of J.R.R. Tolkien's 120th birthday, we had the usual debate over Tolkien's racism. Of course, racism is the","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2012\/01\/tolkien-the-racist.html","og_site_name":"Daffey Thoughts","article_published_time":"2012-01-07T12:09:00+00:00","author":"Dave Griffey","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dave Griffey","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2012\/01\/tolkien-the-racist.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2012\/01\/tolkien-the-racist.html","name":"Tolkien the racist","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-01-07T12:09:00+00:00","dateModified":"2012-01-07T12:09:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/#\/schema\/person\/9de3f33a0818ebc53727444b649c82a7"},"description":"In the wake of the anniversary of J.R.R. Tolkien's 120th birthday, we had the usual debate over Tolkien's racism. Of course, racism is the","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2012\/01\/tolkien-the-racist.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2012\/01\/tolkien-the-racist.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2012\/01\/tolkien-the-racist.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Tolkien the racist"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/","name":"Daffey Thoughts","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/#\/schema\/person\/9de3f33a0818ebc53727444b649c82a7","name":"Dave Griffey","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/546cf1ab64797c201cc8ad19185f2e57?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/546cf1ab64797c201cc8ad19185f2e57?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Dave Griffey"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/author\/dgriffey"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2805"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2915\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":2915,"date":"2012-01-07T12:09:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-07T12:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2012\/01\/tolkien-the-racist.html"},"modified":"2012-01-07T12:09:00","modified_gmt":"2012-01-07T12:09:00","slug":"tolkien-the-racist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2012\/01\/tolkien-the-racist.html","title":{"rendered":"Tolkien the racist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Of course it could be argued that some of the ways Tolkien saw the world were products of his time in history, and those as defined today could amount to racism.\u00a0 Whether that makes The Lord of the Rings<\/em> or any other such book\u00a0a \u2018racist\u2019 work will probably say more about the person\u2019s definition of racism, and how one views modern morals vs. the morals held by other before us. <\/p>\n

Most of it, of course, centers around the idea of Orcs being intrinsically evil creatures, unable to come to redemption, and the men of the South \u2013 dark skinned and swarthy \u2013 being shown as servants of the Enemy.\u00a0 Personally I don\u2019t think Tolkien a racist, nor do I see racism in the works.\u00a0 I see a man writing a mythology where that is how it would have looked to those writing\u00a0the mythology.\u00a0 Did some of it echo that European scientific racism of the 19th and early 20th centuries?\u00a0 Perhaps.\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t slam someone who saw that.\u00a0 But it can also be overplayed, as racism in our culture often is.\u00a0 The most ludicrous charge being that the Scourging of the Shire was an anti-semitic chapter.\u00a0 If I wanted to see it that way, I couldn\u2019t.\u00a0 And that shows the flip side of the charge of racism.\u00a0 If racism is evil, the charge should be made on an absolute \u2018without a doubt\u2019 basis.\u00a0 Not one that almost insists I have to believe it without evidence in the first place, then go and look for it.\u00a0 Because charging racism without solid evidence is, in my opinion, as bad as denying it when it\u2019s obviously there. <\/p>\n

Oh, and for what it\u2019s worth, looking to someone like Philip Pullman for a critique of Tolkien is like looking to Rush Limbaugh for a critique of President Obama.\u00a0 Pullman, like many new atheists, doesn\u2019t hide the fact that he hates \u2013 HATES \u2013 all religion with the white hot fury of a thousand suns.\u00a0 So it shouldn\u2019t be shocking that a work so infused with religious philosophy and reflection as Lord of the Rings, would not find a fan in Pullman.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Anyway, the debates can be found here<\/a>, here<\/a>, and here<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Also, just as an add on, it\u2019s common in some circles of Tolkien fandom to almost apologize for liking the work.\u00a0 Many take on his prose and poetry<\/a>.\u00a0 I, for one, love his prose.\u00a0 It is what it is.\u00a0 He\u2019s writing in a way that suggests a work written before the modern age, but more accessible than a work written before the modern age would be.\u00a0 He writes a story, but the way he wants to write\u00a0it.\u00a0 A combination of Thomas Kinkade and Pablo Picasso.\u00a0 That\u2019s one of the most endearing qualities in the work, at least for me.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"