Lord of the Rings labelled racist

[davem]

Originally Posted by The Saucepan Man

You may be right. But just because a cause looks hopeless, it does not follow that one should not seek to uphold it. Where would Middle-earth have been with an approach like that?

Although, in fact, my own initial consideration of this issue (in the thread I linked to above) was directed at calming the slight qualms that I had, having not at that stage read the book for many a year and having little knowledge of Tolkien the man, that there might be racist undertones. Suffice it to say that they were calmed.

I don't think most readers of the book would even think about it being racist - until some critic points it out, & most of them would instantly dismiss the idea as silly. The ones who propagate the idea won't be convinced otherwise, however convincing your arguments, because they want it to be true that the work is racist. They repeat their position, we repeat ours, & most people, for whom (hope everyone is seated for this...) Tolkien's work is an irrelevance couldn't care less one way or the other.