Are Tolkien Books Racist?

[Mithadan]

Welcome to the Barrow-Downs, Ithilwen! Great first post.

A few comments. First, as Ithiwen stated, the "heroes" of LoTR were Northern European in origin, making it difficult to weave in non-caucasian protagonists. This notwithstanding, JRRT employs a multi-racial array of primary characters, albeit fictional ones, i.e. Hobbits, Elves, Dwarves and men, and is both overtly and impliedly critical of hatred based solely upon race (Elves-Dwarves, Sam's sympathy towards the fallen man of Harad, etc.). Not all non-caucasians are evil (the people of Bor). Those that are were corrupted or deceived by Sauron rather than inherently evil. Witness the prisoners amazement after the battle before the gate that they are not put to death but rather put to work correcting the damage done and then released. JRRT in Letters expressly states that no one, not even the orcs, are irredeemable or fated to be evil.

LoTR was written over fifty years ago during times when modern views of tolerance (I do not use the term "politically correct" because racial, ethnic and religious tolerance are a moral necessity not a political viewpoint) had not yet developed. Even so, JRRT's work incorporates themes of tolerance. In the late 1930s, the Hobbit was being considered for publication in Germany and JRRT received correspondence from German authorities regarding his "racial purity". In his reponse, Tolkien is highly critical of Germany's "racial purity" programs and concludes, and I paraphrase to the best of my memory, that under the circumstances he would "proudly" consider himself to be jewish (even though he was not of course). Tolkien was not a racist and his work could only be viewed as such through the skewed use of the narrow lens of present day political correctness which is, as I said, neither applicable to his time nor a truly accurate view of his writings.