Lord of the Rings labelled racist

[davem]

Let me give a short passage from Tolkien's unfinished story 'The Notion Club Papers' (HoM-e 9) :

"Played the a*s as usual, Ramer", said Lowdham. "Sorry, I felt all strung up, wanted a fight, or a carouse, or something. but really I felt very interested, especially about the immram. Underneath we Nordics have some feelings, as long as the dago-fanciers will only be reasonably polite."

Now, what do we take from that? Bearing in mind that, as has been pointed out by CT among others, the converstions between characters in the story are a reflection of conversations the Inklings had, we have a bit of a dilemma.

The term 'd-f' would now be considered 'racist' by many people. But would it have been considered so in the 40's when Tolkien used it in his story? Should it be removed from the text? Should it be left to stand with a ''health warning". It is certainly a difficult passage to read - or at least shocking when one first comes across it. The use of such a phrase does not imply 'racism' on the part of either the writer or the character - at least not conscious. The character even refers to himself as a 'Nordic', so in effect he's comparing types & using a cultural shorthand, common at the time.

Its easy to label someone or something as 'racist', but when one comes down to defining what constitutes 'racism' in the attitudes & speech of people livong over half a century ago one may struggle, & find that it is not as easy as giving a simple yes or no response.