I as a happy newbie wrote a post about racism, i was in a bad mood and so it wasnt the most analysing of statements. Sorry all. Anyway it is shut down, thank god.
I think that modern society and the society that certainly Tolkien lived in was indeed xenophobic and racist, however there is a great difference between latent racism and open aggrovated racism. I personally believe that Tolkien neither conciously or sub-conciously intended his books to display a hidden racist element, only people who themselves have underlying racist tendences will find such messages if they so wish. The hijacking of Tolkien's masterpiece as a tool to spread racism sickens me to my inner core. A War(i know thats not all it was) has allies and enemies, of what race it doesnt matter. Look at Sauron, a Maiar, an angellic being, the key enemy in LOTR and also Melkor, one of the Valar brother of Manwe was the most evil of all. Also, Saruman.
Evil underlies all racial groups in LOTR, i believe Feanor was not the nicest of Elves, Men of any group were corruptable irrespective of race, Ar Pharazon, Castamir, the Mouth of Sauron with his High Numenorean blood.
There is no racism in LOTR just realism, irrespective of race evil and good are found in all groups of Society and the idea the good professor was a racist is appalling. [img]smilies/mad.gif[/img]
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