Random Instances Of Weird Racism And Bigotry Throughout 'Lord Of Rings' (And In JRR Tolkien's Life) (11 items)

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  (#4) Tolkien's Evil Race Is Based On Racial Stereotypes

  In a letter from 1958, Tolkien wrote that orcs were "squat, broad, flat-nosed, sallow-skinned, with wide mouths and slant eyes: in fact, degraded and repulsive versions of the (to Europeans) least lovely Mongol-types." Even without this concrete evidence of Tolkien's bigotry, orcs' features are clearly racialized within the text, and the films do no better.

  In addition to their black skin, many orcs also have dreadlocks. This combination of traits is clearly inspired by people of color, and the whole thing is utterly disgusting. Even if Tolkien's association was made subconsciously, these types of parallels condition audiences to associate blackness with evil, and help archaic stereotypes continue on into present day. 
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  (#10) 'The Lord Of The Rings' Has Been Hijacked By Racist, Nationalist Groups

  Tolkien was openly anti-war and frequently spoke out against Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler, but that hasn't stopped nationalist and racist groups from commandeering his work for their own bigoted purposes. By creating a mythology in which the majority of heroes are white and the majority of enemies are not, Tolkien unwittingly crafted a tale that represents the views of groups like the neo-Nazi British National Party, who've used his fiction to preach their white-supremacist vision of the world.
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  (#6) Tolkien Was A Total Misogynist

  Tolkien's unflattering views of women are all too apparent in his work. It's this attitude that produced the lackluster characterizations of the story's women, and his misogyny is equally apparent in his personal letters. 

  In what's come to be known as Letter 43, Tolkien explained to his son some "truths" he believed about women.

  "How quickly an intelligent woman can be taught, grasp [a male's] ideas, see his point - and how (with rare exceptions) they can go no further, when they leave his hand, or when they cease to take a personal interest in him," he wrote. Tolkien added that for women, love "means that she wants to become the mother of the young man’s children."

  While he never outright said women are inferior, there's certainly an air of derision in the letter, which suggests Tolkien lacked a basic understanding of femininity. This bleeds back into the characterizations of women in The Lord of the Rings: Eowyn's unfeminine goals are corrected by the tale's end, Galadriel's lust for power is nothing more than the work of an evil ring, and Arwen remains pure, beautiful, and good in a way that's painfully simplistic. 
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  (#2) Tolkien's Literal Representations Of Light And Dark Are Super Problematic

  Occasionally, characters in The Lord of the Rings break the light = good, dark = bad stereotype (Saruman comes to mind), but the prevailing trend is extremely troubling. The struggle of light versus dark is a concept that dates back to the early days of humanity, but in practice the model presents an uncomfortable binary that isn't useful for understanding contemporary conflicts (which are often morally gray all around). 

  Things get even worse when creators decide to demonstrate the concept by making evil characters' features appear darker. This is exactly what transpires in Tolkien's world; the heroes are beautiful and light-skinned, whereas orcs, Uruk-Hai, Easterlings, and Haradrim all feature considerably darker complexions. They're not evil because they're not white, but these associations tend to bleed into viewers' perceptions of real life, and can potentially cause them to be more critical of dark-skinned people. 
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  (#1) Tolkien's Dwarves Are An Unsubtle And Unflattering Analogue To Jewish People

  Tolkien's deliberate association between dwarves and Jewish people is well-documented. He once noted, "[t]he dwarves of course are quite obviously, couldn't you say that in many ways they remind you of [Jewish people]?" This admittance makes his characterization of dwarves troubling - particularly in The Hobbit - as Tolkien relies heavily on Jewish stereotypes, which directly contribute to antisemitism.

  While some dwarves are portrayed as good people, their preoccupation with gold and their incessant greed (which in part fuels the conflict in Lake-town) are inarguably offensive. To make matters worse, dwarves are portrayed as wicked in Tolkien's earlier work, which only serves to further harmful stereotypes about Jewish people that are still prevalent today. 
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  (#9) Physical Characteristics Of Villains Are Racialized

  While many of the series's characters are never described in detail, when it comes to villains, Tolkien often takes a little extra time to list their physical features. Take the Southerner in The Fellowship of the Ring, who's described as "sallow" and having "sly, slanting eyes." Sallow can mean "yellowish," which, in conjunction with the description of the Southerner's eyes calls to mind the racist caricatures of Japanese people that were prevalent during World War II.

  Tolkien claimed that the series wasn't intended to be an allegory for any war, and it's possible he never intended for such a connection to be made. However, at a certain point, Tolkien's intent becomes irrelevant, as many of these racial stereotypes are so ingrained in Western culture that they routinely pop up in seemingly unrelated texts. In light of all the franchise's other problems, it's important to consider why the Southerner's traits are so easily associated with evil in Tolkien's world.

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