Skip to main content

the lord of the rings - Are the LOTR + Hobbit movies racist?



As discussed in this question, there are a number of elements in the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies that could be construed as racist against Muslim and non-Caucasian people, for example the fact Mordor is in the East and has the 'black' gate, whereas Gondor is the 'white' city, the men from the East who came to serve Sauron are dark skinned with face coverings, whereas all the good guys are explicitly described as fair.



The consensus of opinion seems to be that Tolkien wasn't being explicitly racist but my question relates to the films. It certainly seems that Peter Jackson could have done something about these (perceived) problems, but he chose not to.


Is this because the movies, or Jackson himself are intentionally racist?



Answer



As you've noted in your question, there are certainly a number of elements from the original source material that could be construed as being at least unconsciously racist but as with most things in life, the bigger answer is rarely black and white.


Yes




  • This news article strongly suggests that the people in charge of casting for The Hobbit sequels were intentionally screening for certain racial characteristics in the cast of extras. It's reasonable to assume that this was also the case in LOTR given that they used the same casting company and many of the same staff;



    We are looking for light-skinned people. I'm not trying to be -- whatever. It's just the brief. You've got to look like a hobbit.






  • You'll note that there are precisely no black or asian characters in the cast of the LOTR trilogy, nor are there any people of colour in any of the crowd scenes, excepting those characters wearing heavy makeup (orcs and Uruk-Hai). In a country where nearly 20% of the population are non-white, it was either an astounding coincidence or more likely an intentional choice to exclude people from ethnic minorities from the films.




No




  • Jackson has spoken on the subject of racism. His contention seems to be that he is merely telling a story and that he, as Director is free to stick to Tolkien's intention (regarding casting) even if that leads to unfounded allegations of racism:




    Q. In Tolkien's work, Middle-earth is almost exclusively occupied by white-skinned people with the notable exceptions, the Haradrum, being allies of the enemy. How will you escape the almost certain protest this might cause if put on film? ... It seems that this could easily be misinterpreted as racism on Tolkien's part instead of the function of geography that it is. Will the dark-skinned men who only appear in battle scenes be replaced by orcs in the movie in order to be PC or will you stay true to the book?


    "Well this is obviously a very difficult question, and a contentious one, and let me just say that I think that one of the things that's important is that we have to realise that Tolkien himself was horrified at modern analogies being placed on his work, I mean he always rejected the notion that the stories were based on World War II and the rise of Hitler and all that. He was working in a mythic realm of storytelling, and I think to apply modern political thinking on a story that is essentially 50 years old is a little bit inappropriate, and I think people have to be careful....I don't think Tolkien was a racist at all, and therefore that is not where he was coming from, and it's just not where criticism of these stories should lie. I think if you talk about the Haradrum, as an example - whatever the colour of their skin is described as, Tolkien has a wonderful passage in the books where one of the Haradrum falls dead in front of Sam, and he has a wonderful passage where Sam looks at this dead body in front of him and he says, I can't remember the exact words, but it's like 'I wonder where he came from, I wonder if he really wanted to come and fight here, I wonder whether he would have rather stayed at home in peace', and that, there's nothing racist about that, it's humanity. And so I think this is a story where its mythic qualities and its humanity shines through beyond any political beliefs that could be assigned to it."





  • Following the casting incident noted above, Jackson's production company sought to mediate the damage by firing the staff member and issuing these statements:



    “The crew member in question has been dismissed from the show,” and "No such instructions were given," and "The crew member in question took it upon themselves to do that and it's not something we instructed or condoned".




    and



    "It is not something the producers or the director of The Hobbit were aware of; they would never issue instructions of this kind to the casting crew. All people meeting the age and height requirements are welcome to audition for The Hobbit.".





  • They also pointed out that in the films there are a solid number of black and Asian extras, as well as several prominent (albeit still makeup covered) named characters who come from ethnic minorities. Ironically, this has lead to allegations that they are engaged in tokenism and BLONCing (e.g. placing "BLacks ON Camera") to avoid the suggestion of racism, itself a form of racist conduct.


    enter image description here





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Did Dolores Umbridge Have Any Association with Voldemort (or Death Eaters) before His Return?

I noticed that Dolores Umbridge was born during the first Wizarding War, so it's very likely she wasn't a Death Eater then (but she is pretty evil -- who knows?). After that Voldemort was not around in a way that could affect many people, and most wouldn't know he was planning to rise again. During that time, and up through Voldemort's return (in Goblet of Fire ), did Umbridge have any connection with the Death Eaters or with Voldemort? Was she doing what she did on her own, or was it because of an association with Voldemort or his allies? Answer Dolores Umbridge was definitely not a good person. However, as Sirius points out, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". Remember that he also says that he doesn't believe Umbridge to be a Death Eater, but that she's evil enough (or something like that). I think there are two strong reasons to believe that: Umbridge was proud to do everything according to the law, except when she trie...

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF

harry potter - What is the difference between Diffindo and Sectumsempra?

In the Harry Potter books, Diffindo is called the 'Severing Charm' and it’s most commonly used to cut ropes and the like. However, in the last book Hermione uses it on Ron but misses, creating a 'slash in his jeans' and his knee gets cut, causing him to 'roar in pain'. We've only seen Sectumsempra used once on screen when Harry directly uses it on Malfoy in the sixth book, but there it's mentioned that he is 'waving his wand wildly'. Wouldn't Diffindo, if used in such a fashion also cause a similar effect? Similarly, if it was able to cut Ron, it would also be able to, say, chop off an ear (George's)? In that case, how are these two spells different, except for Sectumsempra seemingly used exclusively to hurt humans? Answer While Diffindo and Sectumsempra both can be countered by other spells, Diffindo is far more easily countered. Reparo, a relatively common spell, can completely reverse its effect when used once. “He pulled the old cop...