While there are those, as a number of Twitter accounts have to sought to remind me, who believe orcs are intended to be Tolkien’s perspective on people of color, there’s no evidence from Tolkien’s writing or life to justify that (as opposed to, for instance, the wide array of evidence that speaks to the racism of his contemporary H.P. Biographers have noted Tolkien was very much opposed to the Aryan ideology popularized by the Nazis, and of colonialism in South Africa. This ignores the individuals of color who have populated England throughout its history, and that the first modern Britons had dark skin, based on DNA evidence taken from the Cheddar Man, a 10,000-year-old skeleton discovered in 1903.Īnd while there’s no sense in speculating on the reactions of a dead man who could not possibly fathom the 21st century by the time of his death in 1973, Tolkien was notably anti-racist, even for the time period. Yet, there remains the idea that because Tolkien sought to create an English mythology that he intended Middle-earth to be comprised only of white people. Not only is this untrue, as harfoots are described as having “browner” skin, but Tolkien didn’t often make a point to describe skin color, though he occasionally leaned on the open-ended “fairer than …” The most common refrain is that Tolkien didn’t include people of color in his stories. So why shouldn’t I be able to feel the joy of seeing people who resemble me within Middle-earth? What makes me less deserving of this pop culture heritage?Īt this point, I’ve heard every argument in the book against why castmembers Lenny Henry, Ismael Cruz Cordova, Nazanin Boniadi, Sara Zwangobani, Maxine Cunliffe and Sophia Nomvete shouldn’t play harfoots, elves, dwarves, or even humans in the Middle-earth where Amazon’s series is set. I say all of this not to cast myself as an expert on all things Middle-earth, but to paint the picture that this world of fantasy is an inherent part of me, as key to my makeup as DNA. I collected every single Burger King goblet, and played every video game despite being admittedly terrible at most of them. The Fellowship of the Ring was the first DVD I ever owned. And when Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings came out, the films defined my adolescence as much as Star Wars and Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man. In middle school, I spent my bus rides listening to The Lord of the Rings on audio cassettes. When Ralph Bakshi’s The Lord of the Rings (1978) was re-released on VHS, my mom took me to the store to buy it on the day it was released. I did my fifth-grade biography report on C.S. Not just The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings, but The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales and The History of Middle-Earth. When it was time for school book fairs, I was the class’ early adopter of Tolkien’s works. I grew up watching Rankin and Bass’ The Hobbit (1977) and The Return of the King (1980) on repeat. Tolkien’s world for almost as long as I can remember. At least that’s the primary argument for those ruinous trolls apparently review bombing and harassing fans of color over Amazon’s Rings of Powers series. But allow people of color to exist in Middle-earth? Well, that is an affront to all that’s good and decent. A wealth of stories, and a willingness to believe in wizards, Balrogs, giant spiders and magical swords. It would almost be laughable if it wasn’t so profoundly sad. For the past week, I’ve been bombarded with messages of hate, called the N-word, told to go back to Africa, and called on to be executed. What I’m discussing is our very real world, and social media as an extension of that world. I could very easily be discussing Middle-earth, but I’m not. 'Halloween Ends' Puts Peacock on Streaming Charts for the First Time
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