The 'Racist' Tapestry of LotR

[Hypersmurf]

My African-American friend hates when we refer to him as 'African-American'....he just says, "I hate that term, I'm a black guy...c'mon now....."

Another one I've heard - "I am not a 'senior citizen', damn it... I am an old man!"

-Hyp.

 

[KenM]

There is racisim in LotR movies. In Return of the King, the big fight scene with the dwarf was cut while they leave the elf's big fight scene in. Dwarven discrimnation, I tell you.

 

[Dark Jezter]

How many American made movies do you know where the Asian female spurns all her asian male suitors until one day ...magically....a beautiful caucasian male comes along to give her exactly what she's been always dreaming of?

Off the top of my head? Zero.

Guess I haven't seen as many movies as you.

But no matter how bad we think we got it....we have all concluded...the ethnic group to get the worst from Hollywood are those of middle-eastern background.

Bah.

For the last decade or so, Hollywood has been extremely reluctant to portray arabs as bad guys. Take The Sum of All Fears, for example. In the novel, the terrorists were Islamic fundies. In the movie, Hollywood decided to politically-correct it and turn the bad guys into rich white male neo-fascists. Because in this day and age, the only inoffensive bad guys are space aliens and white people.

Even movies that have arab villains such as The Siege and True Lies often include at least one good guy arab.

A good villain should be judged not by race or gender, but by the evilness within.

 

[Nightfall]

Darrin, and the rest,

I apologise for policitizing a thread with my politics even though this is a semi-political thread with some major political ramifications for later on. Uhm perhaps.

Maybe I just want to use the politics in some form... alot!

In any case, nice post Serge!

 

[Dirigible]

Ving Rhames would have made an awesome Frodo.

 

[DM_Matt]

As an aside, are you really African?

One of my friends is African, and gets strongly annoyed when people call themselves African American when they really mean Black-skinned American, which seems to be really common.

Why do they call themselves African?

Geoff.

African-American is the current politically correct term in the US, altouhgh we get a new word every generation or so. Its not entirely accurate -- it doesnt differentiate between poeple who are actually form Africa and black people who can trace their ancestry back hundreds of years in this country; it doesnt count white south Africans who may have immegrated from there after their family was there for centuries, one or both of which would make them African in some way; and it is extremely inaccurate with respect to North African Arabs that have been there througohut human history but aren't who we mean when we say African-American.

To those non-Americans out-there: What terms are genreally used in your societies for minority groups? We hyphenate just about all of them...African-American, Asian-American A(or sometimes Japanese-American, Chinese-American, Taiwanese-American, etc...all countries can have their own hypenated term), Hispanic or Latino-American (Latino/a is gaining acceptance, as well as Chicano/a for Mexicans, but those are still mostly on the fringe although up=and=coming), Jewish-American, Arab-American, Native American, etc.

 

[Storm Raven]

The author of the rant pretty much lost me when he declared that the orcs were "Imitations of native americans". Umm, which native americans are you thinking of, because the Jackson LotR orcs pretty much didn't even come close to resembling any of the ones I can think of.

 

[The Serge]

As an aside, are you really African?

My parents are Caribbean (father's Haitian, mother's Jamaican).

One of my friends is African, and gets strongly annoyed when people call themselves African American when they really mean Black-skinned American, which seems to be really common.

I've also had "white" South Africans refer to themselves as African Americans. Now that's interesting to hear...

Why do they call themselves African?

This is a political decision on my part. I hate the term "Black American" or "Black-skinned" American because my skin's not black. It's a rich, chocolate color. Good enough to eat. If you like chocolate.

Seriously, though, the problem with these descriptions is that they are based upon an erroneous concept of race fueled largely by the slave-trade and the culture that was created as a result by the early 18th century. There needed to be a "moral" foundation to support slavery based upon skin-color, and the creation of "races" was a convenient way to do this (it also allowed for fewer problems with lower-class people of European decent).

As I mentioned in my previous post, in Western thought (and it could be argued, I suppose, that other cultures have similar imagery) black is often associated with evil, death, despair, and so on. Although I'm not personally bothered by this, I am concerned about how this sort of attitude seeps into the subconscious of other people, who in turn witlessly act out their concerns. I suspect that this, in addition to attitudes with roots in early 18th century racist thought, is why African American men continue to be viewed with a degree of trepidation and as savages, and why why African American women are viewed as succubi.

Now, I will say this. I don't consider myself African in any way. Indeed, up until I was 14 or 15, my parents did not consider themselves in the same "boat" as what they referred to as "black Americans." I was not a "black American;" I was a Haitian-Jamaican-American (and, like your friend, they viewed the use of the term "African American" as foolish since they weren't African. To them -- and I agree with this on a personal and not political level -- one identifies with ones national heritage, and not one's "racial," and therefore non-existant, heritage since there's no real such thing as race). However, to most white Americans, there was no visual difference between me and "black Americans." I would be treated in the same fashion as a "black American" despite some serious cultural differences. This realization for me and my family encouraged us to recognize that, in this country, there is a necessity to acknowledge the reality while simultaneously fight against it. Language is a simple means to accomplish this.

I think these attitudes are sort of reflected in Tolkien. How many different names are there for Elves? Eldar is the larger one, but then there are Noldor, and couple others. Then there're are words to describe those that traveled to the West and those who remained, and then those who returned... Never at any point is there a suggestion of a different race, but there is a suggestion of different attitudes based upon different experiences that revolve around location and geography and how those experiences shaped attitudes.

On the other hand, Tolkien's Middle-Earth is mythological and some creatures are simply born evil. As a mythological world, this is a reflection of the evil in all beings made manifest as a race. As a myth, this must be taken as a grain of salt rather than as some kind of gospel. Furthermore, let's consider "races of Men" who followed Sauron. Every country, every civilization, at one time or another has villified another country/people because of a lack of understanding on each other's part. In the case of those who worshipped Sauron, this is a reflection of their weakness and his power over them... not to mention his manipulation of their ignorance. How is this any different in how Hitler, or Mussolini, or Stalin, or any number of demogouges from Africa, the Americas, or Asia manipulated the ignorance of others, which in turn allowed them to commit horrific acts against their fellow human beings? Does this automatically mean that all Germans are evil? Of course not. However, for that brief period in history, in reading about the past, to someone who doesn't really consider what brought Germany and its people to that point, it can certainly seem that way. People can apply this same thought to Sauron's relationship with the various evil Men in Tolkien's mythology.

But, back to your original question... African American is a term that I use for political reasons. The US is still a country in which "race" is an issue. I'm not blindly idealistic, so I would never just say, "I will just call myself American," because to do so will not change the reality or the pride that I think all people in a pluralistic society should have for their background. And, such a statement recognizes one's "national" background more so than the idea of some "race" that doesn't exist in the first place. I agree that it is "politically correct," because I think that PC -- real PC -- is a good thing. It shows that there is an institutional problem that permeates a society and that people need to be conscious of how their words are reflections of their attitudes. I am a firm believer that by encouraging people to adjust their language, people are encouraged to adjust their attitudes. Fake PC, which is an attempt to use new language just for the sake of new language without any real desire to positively impact society or simply not saying things, is not what this is about. I think use of the terms "white" or "black" to describe people reinforces old attitudes and the idea that "race" exists as a reality rather than as a social construct and this is unhealthy.

 

[Greatwyrm]

Ving Rhames would have made an awesome Frodo.

That's an interesting image...

"I need a couple of hardcore, pipeweed-hitting hobbits to go down there and straighten him out..."

"Your Hobbiton privileges have been revoked."

 

[Darrin Drader]

To those non-Americans out-there: What terms are genreally used in your societies for minority groups? We hyphenate just about all of them...African-American, Asian-American A(or sometimes Japanese-American, Chinese-American, Taiwanese-American, etc...all countries can have their own hypenated term), Hispanic or Latino-American (Latino/a is gaining acceptance, as well as Chicano/a for Mexicans, but those are still mostly on the fringe although up=and=coming), Jewish-American, Arab-American, Native American, etc.

In a text book, I once saw the term British African American in reference to a person of African descent who had never set foot in the United States. I found it amusing.

I do agree with the Serge on just about every point he makes.