4 ms·
So blacks and Indians (from India) are orcs? Who's the racist again?
by patrickgzill 16y ago
So blacks and Indians (from India) are orcs? Who's the racist again?
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- nostromo 16y agoNo, not Orcs. There are men who are allied with Mordor in the books. Specifically "Haradrim", who are described as black-skinned men from the south that rode elephants (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southrons#Haradrim http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southrons#Haradrim), and Easterlings, men who are described as swarthy, dark-haired, and dark-eyed from the east (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easterlings http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easterlings). I'm not saying the books are racists, but it's not a stretch to think of these people as indian and black respectively given the book's description.
- albertsun 16y agoThere's a deaded comment by nostromo here that I thought was good and don't see why it was killed. The interpretation of LotR as a book about the domination of non-white peoples is really not that much of a stretch. -- No, not Orcs. There are men who are allied with Mordor in the books. Specifically "Haradrim", men who are described as black-skinned (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southrons#Haradrim http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southrons#Haradrim), and Easterlings, men who are described as swarthy, dark-haired, and dark-eyed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easterlings http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easterlings). I'm not saying the books are racists, but it's not a stretch to think of these people as indian and black respectively given the book's description.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- pbhjpbhj 16y ago>I'm not saying the books are racists, but it's not a stretch to think of these people as indian and black respectively given the book's description. It's a stretch because Indians and other people live on this Earth and not in some fantasy reality created by an author. Sure if you want to imagine that one species/race in the book is visually akin to a race/group/country of real humans that's fine, why would it matter. This sort of argument to me is like saying that the books stereotype elephants because the great war beast Mamulik (sp?) are elephantine. In short I think you're over analysing it, it's just a yarn.