The 'Racist' Tapestry of LotR

[Seonaid]

I think it was either Denzel Washington or Samuel L. Jackson who, when asked about the awards given to Washington and Berry, said "I'll consider it progress when it's no longer such a big deal."

Damn straight.

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

Lord of the Rings Racist...

Hrmmm....

Black Speach....

I wonder what the word, in the language of Mordor, is for "shizel."

 

[Mark Chance]

An accurate non-offensive ethnic portrayal can still be one from a 'bad guy'....so long as its done correctly.

This can still be the result of ducking real issues. A lot of those offensive ethnic portrayals are based very much in reality. There are offensive ethnic "subtypes" (for lack of a better word) out there. For me, the key is whether such offensive ethnic "subtypes" are portrayed in a cause-effect manner, such as "Sayd is a terrorist because he is Arab." Using ethnicity as the cause for aberrant behavior is, at least, a sign of lazy writing. To use an example that hits close to home for me, there are very real reasons why about 3/4 of Hispanic students in Houston, Texas, do not finish high school. There are very real reasons why huffing paint is on the rise among Hispanic teenagers. There are very real reasons why Houston, Texas, has some profoundly violent gangs, many of which are Hispanic (and few of which are white).

But none of those reasons are because the kids involved are Hispanic.

This cuts both ways. Someone cited Denzel Washington and/or Samuel L. Jackson as saying he'll be happy (or whatever) when it isn't such big news that an African-American is nominated for an award such as an Oscar. The assumption is that larger numbers of African-Americans (or Hispanics or Asians or whomever) aren't nominated because Hollywood is racist. This begs the question. It might be that, for example, fewer African-Americans are nominated for Oscars because there are fewer exceptional African-American actors, screenwriters, directors, et cetera. I'm not saying this is the case, mind you. It's not like I've done an exhaustive study on the subject, but too often people (such as an actor) ascribe false motives to others (such as the Academy) because they mistake their perception for reality.

But, more to the point, anyone who reads LotR as a racist allegory is a bonehead. Tolkein himself was quite clear that his work is not an allegory, that he, in fact, disliked allegory as a device in fiction. What's more, to the extent that LotR is at least analogical, it is largely a Catholic Christian analogy, another point that Tolkein was rather clear about.

 

[TracerBullet42]

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.

Stupid elves...

Actually, I think that these movies promote a lot of racial tolerance...perhaps even friendships. Maybe not the "traditional black/white" racial issues...but you have elves, dwarves, hobbits, and men. And all races needed to put aside their differences and work together to destroy the evil.

How 'bout them apples?

I like apples.

 

[Villano]

Well, I thing you're lacking perspective on that one. You need to consider who produced Prince Valiant. The Family Channel, in it's original incarnation (i.e. Pat Robertson and friends) produced the show. Hence, there could be no magic, few if any fantastic elements, very little violence and they sometimes went way out of their way to try and be politically correct. A classic example is the episode with the thinly vieled 'children shouldn't play with gu....err, crossbows' plot. Pity, that.

I had totally forgotten about that. The Family Channel has gone through so many hands I can't remember who had it when what aired. It's been owned by CBN (Christian Broadcasting Network), Fox, and ABC (I think it was even Disney Family for a time). The fact that Robertson owned it does shed new light on how dinosaurs were roaming around in the middle ages on the show, though (evolution doesn't exist, man & dinosaur co-existed, and the Earth is only a few thousand years old).

But, I think everyone here talking about race and Hollywood is forgetting the bigger picture: X2 was all about homosexuality, Hulk was loaded with pro-Republican, government propaganda, and America really started World War 2.*

*I swear I read that on someone's blog. According to him, the US secretly declared was on Japan and tried to invade it. Pearl Harbor was attacked in self defense. Oh, and we "forced" all the other countries of the world to fight "for" us.

Aside from how amazingly screwed-up that is and the fact that it ignores Hitler, the Holocaust, and the entire war in Europe, there were people who were agreeing with him and cheering him on in "setting the record straight".

The leason is that even crazy people have internet access...and they can find each other!

 

[Tonguez]

and America really started World War 2.*

*I swear I read that on someone's blog. According to him, the US secretly declared was on Japan and tried to invade it. Pearl Harbor was attacked in self defense. Oh, and we "forced" all the other countries of the world to fight "for" us.

Actually Pearl Harbour was revenge from the Invasion of the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1893. The Japanese Empire had established close relations with Hawaiian royalty and a marriage between the two households was planned. The American invasion of Hawaii was a deliberate attempt to curtail Japanese influence in the Pacific. The Japanese then used WW2 as a means to restablish their 'just' claim

- at least thats one theory I've heard