and in response to Andy Serkis' "all white shire" comment, i'm going to quote Tolkien himself:
"But I have the hatred of apartheid in my bones; and most of all I detest the segregation or separation of Language and Literature. I do not care which of them you think White."
That’s right racists, you can’t hide behind Tolkien or being a Tolkien “purist”. Tolkien won’t let you.
TLDR: you can’t value the potentially troublesome and/or racist beliefs of ONE dead person more than ALL your fellow human beings. If given a chance to CHOOSE to include people who have historically been pushed to the sidelines for racist reasons and upholding a racist ideal of an idyllic whites own paradise you should choose inclusion over exclusion
At this point I want to scream at people that we don’t HAVE to be faithful to the horrible beliefs of our predecessors. Like even IF Serkis was right (and he’s not) WE can choose to NOT repeat the mistakes of the past.
Tolkien wasn’t perfect and there is racism and bigotry in his works AND there was also a lot of anti-bigotry in his works but we’re not bound to the perspective of one man. We can choose to pick up where he left off and further correct the harmful tropes and inherent biases in his books.
No matter what Tolkien intended, Middle-Earth belongs to everyone and is home to everyone and we can choose to reflect the beauty of our diverse world by welcoming EVERYONE into our own interpretations and reimagings of Tolkien’s world.
When WE create something (even if it’s a reinterpretation or built off of someone else’s work) WE get to choose what values we want to imbue that work with. If we truly believe in antiracism and fighting against white supremacy, racism, fascism, etc. then we must actively choose to include the voices of people who historically have been pushed out for racist reasons.
By actively choosing to hide behind this weird logic that Tolkien wanted a pure whites only Shire so we just CANT cast people of color as hobbits, you are actively choosing to uphold the white supremacist and racist thoughts that are harming the world today. Then you’re using the dead professor as your shield to retain the goodwill of people willing to give you the benefit of a doubt (or who just don’t care). It’s insidious and a great way to cover your own troublesome beliefs. Additionally it creates this mental wall where you don’t have to question your own inherent biases.
Also, even IF that was truly Tolkien’s intention (which it wasn’t) WHY would you want to uphold that intention of all intentions? Why wouldn’t you want to dismantle that disgusting idea as soon as possible? You can love Tolkien and his world and also say you know what that’s a fucked up idea. Let’s not do that. Or yeah no professor that’s your bigotry/racism/biases popping up and I’m not going to tolerate that
There is this weird tension between remaining faithful to a book/comic and acknowledging that the mere act of adapting a work requires you to take someone else’s work and make it your own and by doing so YOU are actively choosing what to retain and what to reimagine. Your adaptation will NEVER be the book because the book is the book and your adaptation is YOUR take on the book. You, ultimately, are responsible for what is included and what isn’t and what you, either subconsciously or consciously, add to the adaptation.
Finally England/Europe has always had POC!!!! So this entire conversation is bullshit. Include BIPOC in your projects people!!!
love all of this! ^
I feel like pointing out Tolkien did explicitly state that one of the three groups that originally founded the shire had brown skin, just for the people who don’t know why Serkis is completely full of shit. Also, two out of three of the houses of the Edain were described as racially diverse, and the elves and dwarves skin colour was never mentioned at all.
I know this addition is sorta undermining the posts point a bit, but I figured someone reading this might want to know why people who make these claims are just being racist; people like Serkis are actively ignoring the text in order to push a white supremacist agenda. I’m just so tired of all this “whites only middle-earth” nonsense.
