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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Serge" data-source="post: 1291423" data-attributes="member: 4049">I've heard about this for two days now and I just had the opportunity to read it.  And, I'm not surprised.  What I find ironic about this article is that it's apparently written by "white" European (French, I think someone said) and not by a person of color...I think that it is easy to apply the standard of cultural/ethnic/racial insensitivity on LotR in the same way it's easy to point out homoerotic images in Batman and Robin or Nazi references in Superman.  But I've always been of the opinion that easy-to-find metaphors and "symbols" are often likely to be, at best, found as a result of shallow exposure.I'm an African American.  To this day, after reading the books and watching the movies over the past 15 years, I still don't see any racist material in this. LotR is a mythology for England.  As such, it stands to reason that it will largely feature "white" people.  And, since England lies in the west of Eurasia, it stands to reason that the parallel between its real-life location and the statement Aragorn (not Theoden) makes in the movie about "Men of the West" is there.  And let's consider the imagery of the various allies of Sauron...  In LotR, as in much of Western European color symbolism, black and white often represent good and evil.  To a degree, Tokien follows this... To a degree.  Gandalf the Grey is clearly not "neutral" and Sauruman the White quickly reveals himself to be evil (and Many-Colored... something he also really isn't).  Many Elves have very dark features (black hair and such) and, considering some of the images I've seen, remind me of either Asians or Native Americans. I find it interesting that the writer refers to Tolkien, but then doesn't bother to really clarify what he thinks Tolkien was trying to say about race.  Frankly, if anything, I would say that Tolkien was very much a multicultural person, except he wasn't using the obvious (and, at the time in which he was writing this stuff, it wouldn't have been obvious) human "racial" breakdowns.  The fact that it required Elves and Men to defeat Sauron in the first War of the Ring, and then all the races of Middle-Earth to oppose him the second time, forcing them to put aside their differnces in the face of a greater threat, reveals an attitude I wouldn't expect from a man of his age in that time (regardless of his education).  And let's consider the context here as well.  We are talking about a man who was writing a mythology for England.  He wasn't writing one for Africa or the Americas or Asia.  This is reflected in the films.  I would have been somewhat disappointed if Jackson decided to throw in a black actor to play a major role since that clearly would have been done to avoid criticism rather than to promote the nature of Tolkien's stories.  Indeed, I'm pleased that we didn't see any people of clear African descent in this film (including among the Uruk-Hai and Orcs).  I am a liberal.  I agree that there needs to be greater inclusiveness in our society.  On the other hand, when folks decide to analyze elements of popular culture to determine where we need to shore up, such people really need to examine their intent and do some research before they open their mouths.  All this person's done is further erode any drive to promote diversity since he's clearly made a huge donkey out of himself.</blockquote>

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