LOTR & The Hobbit are written by a white man who comes from a white culture. He did not have to specify what colour his races were, because it was a given, an automatic understanding that he was writing about the cultures he was from. WHITE EUROPEAN CULTURE.
But he DID STATE IT, he described his lifes work as trying to add or provide a genuine basic narrative of folklore that was truly British and specifically English.
That cultural base he drew from or the repository of folklore he is working from and adding to, is the ancestral and cultural heritage of a related people from the same European family who became different tribes and nations, and which were indigenous to Europe, to name a few: Celts, Saxons, Angles, Jutes, Danes, Vikings, Frisians, Goths, Vandals, Visigoths, etc, and all the other Germanic and Scandinavian peoples, who happen to be white i.e.White European peoples, NOT African, NOT Indians, NOT Pakistanis or NOT Chinese peoples. Those non-European peoples and their specific cultures are an expression of those specific peoples, all of whom belong to their own types and other groups of peoples that are similar to them and NOT white or European.
The white Europeans whether you like it or not, are THE basis and foundation for the model for which Tolkien was basing his own mythology upon. NOT any other non-white European, tribe, nation or race.
He did not HAVE TO state the colour of the races of Middle Earth, because the mythology he was CONTINUING on from was created by white Europeans, also because Tolkien was living in an England that was nearly homogenously indigenous, and that meant white people, but was most certainly homogenously culturally white European, a nation state. He did not have or envision the massive non-European ethnic population change that exists today, but that is irrelevant, as the whole point was, he was CONTINUING upon an ancient repository of folklore/sagas/legends/mythology that was created by indigenous European peoples and tribes and making a mythology that was specifically English. He did not HAVE TO state what colour the races were, because he was continuing British mythology, which as any normal person, he took as a given, he was working in the context of his time but not only that, he was working in the context of European myth and legend, which ARE white cultural folktales, none other.
The heroes and characters within them are either white or European-based, meaning, put in an expression that our European white tribes were familiar with(when Europe was white), and that goes for the non-human creatures(goblins, orcs, trolls, ogres, dwarves, elves) even though they are not human, they are all a European brand of expression, an expression of the white minds and ancestral white collective experience of living in Europe. Created, imagined or otherwise (folktales sometimes are based in truth or have an element of truth), told, re-told BY white people, FOR white people of yesteryear, (today we can tell our white myths to other races, but they are still based in white culture and people, so just as we could listen to Native American Indians share their cultural stories and imagine them, the Natives the sole characters in them, so too, it must be done for white folklore), these tales were expressed in a way that is peculiar and specific to the white tribes of that time and white culture for all time, and in a way that is tied up with our indigenous European white ancestors? UNIQUE way of expressing themselves, from what they, and they alone, had come to experience in theiir time in our homeland of Europe.
So creatures of European white mythology, that are white such as dwarves and elves are white as in, European white. Hobbits that are white, are European white. They will have European bone structure and look like white Europeans.
Any other creatures described as not white, are not white but in a way that fits with the mythology created by an ancient world of white Europeans as befits the rest of European mythology. For example, there are different types of white skin, red-heads have bone white or pearly white skin while non red-heads have a, 'MORE' 'brownER' skin,(which STILL is nothing like the colour or texture of other non-white races). What is meant when we say red hair, so too it would be the same for a 'white persons meaning and vision of, 'brown'.' Just like red hair is not really red but an Auburn/blond/copper. So too, ?brown? hobbits, (from the way of thinking of Europeans creating their mythology, which is created FOR and BY them), would mean that brown hobbits would not be Asian yellow or look like Asians, nor would they look like African people. They would look like whites in terms of physique and bone structure, have blue,grey,green, or brown eyes(whites have brown eyes too) but have skin that is a 'white persons brown' (as shown by talking about red-hair, or, as we will see, when white people get a suntan, they colour differently to other darker races, they STILL do not look like yellow asians). Brown hobbits would be more likely to have a tinge of brown or a brown hue that would probably be a very light hue- like a white person who had a tan, and tanned white people colour differently to other races, whether those other races have a tan or not, whites, when tanned, get a colour that is goldeny or orangey but never an Asian sallowness or yellowness and whites with such a tan, STILL look like whites, not Asians. Even Asians who are at their palest, still have a sallowyness or yellowy complexion which can be seen wherever the skin gathers in folds, around the eyes, around the knuckles etc. While whites who are at their palest have a more pinkish or pearl-whitish complexion. But in all cases, the bone structures for the races (in their unmixed variety, like the ethnic Europeans), IS different, as is the skin tone and complexions. Whites very definitely have their own, and it is the whites of this mythology we are talking about, those of Europe of yesteryear, not the brand of mixed race ppls living in Europe today. The only exception to the entrance of a foreign people in LOTR are the Southron men or more clear cut, the Haradrim, here there is a linguistic nod to the fact that this is culturally men of Arabic background, Harad being an Arabic linguistic root. So Asians playing such desert and southern Middle Earth armies are fine. In fact it is proof that non-white humans were part of Middle-Earth, but as humans from the regions way south of where LOTR and the hobbit take place which represents Europe and these Arab-like characters and armies come from areas of Middle Earth which mirror the parts of the Real World where they are to be found, namely Africa and Arabia. These are the only dark skinned characters and they come from non-European-like areas in Middle Earth, NOT the brown or yellow hobbits, who are in the European part of Middle-Earth, such as the Shire, where white mythical notions of different hues of white or such colours are to be applied to the different creatures found within that European-like part of Middle-Earth.
As regards Orcs, they too are not black as in the way we think of African black, they would look nothing like Africans, which is good, as Africans therefore would not be compared to something which is bad or maligned. If there were African characters in Middle-Earth, they would come from lands further south than the Haradrim and would be African looking, so Africans could play a role if ever armies from those lands came North. As such therefore, also another point being that Blacks in Middle Earth would play roles as men from such an area in Middle-Earth and not Orcs. Orcs are not black, they are of the old race of elves, so again would have forms that conform to notions of physique that are ancient European. Elves would have a noble and aristocratic bearing such as long straight thin noses, pointy ears, so Orcs would be elves who have degenerated, perhaps SOME have lost noses, the length of their full long nose over 1000s of years toiling under the enslavement of the dark lord. Others would still have long weird noses, pointy type chins, pointy ears. So Orcs are elves alive for centuries that have been deformed and disfigured by evil and darkness, their skin colour is not actually from a race of people like Africans, in that way. It has gone from Elven pearl white to skin that is dead and lifeless and corrupted from, slavery, work, poison, stress, so that white becomes a mockery of white, it is a disfigured skin and a rough hide, and the only reason SOME orcs are dark skin, is bcoz they have this disfigurement, in other words their features have become twisted animalistic/demonic/gargoylish and deathly/dark due to this association with the dark powers over time. Not the same kind of healthy and normal lifely skin of the darker-skinned races of this REAL world, nothing to do with them at all.
Not all orcs have dark skin, some will give off greenish hues, some yellowish, while the URUK-HAI special ORCS are blacker and darker as they were a new breed. Some black, with a purplish tinge, some with a reddish hue, but nothing to do with the hues and tinges of real life Africans and Asians. Remember they are supposed to be a perversion and mockery of the pure white skin of the Elves, which was glowing in all it's glory. So the orcs would be living corrupted, sickly and pus coloured type hues compared to that. So all the subtle greys, greens, khaki yellows and dull greys come to mind. With blue blacks, purpley blacks and reddish browns all for the Uruk-hai. LOTR 1,2 and 3 got it right. The Orcs or Goblins as portrayed marching out of the lieutenants citadel are spot on, cunning, different hues, some pale, some dark looking, but all with different hues of grey, green, yellow, cunning and sly looking, but none ?dark? in the sense of the real human world of the different human races.
Tolkien?s work is based and rooted in White European culture, a culture of, from and for white people and tribes who were ancient European and white. Africans have their own experience of life and their own folktales that is expressed in their own unique way, and is different to white Europeans, so too, Indians and Pakistanis have their own myths, legends, heroes and villains, all with their own flavour and different taste. They may have strange creatures and characters of their own that may look nothing like the creatures (Dwarves, Elves, Goblins, Orcs, Trolls, Ogres, Giants, Hobbits) that Europeans expressed and gave life to, real or imagined. So, instead of trying to hijack European unique expression, why not put on film the myths and legends of these unique non-white cultures and races, and then they can lay claim to their own ancestral heritages.
All myths and legends are folktales of a group of people who are from the same type, eg. a family, or a tribe, or a nation or a race, and in that sense the myths/sagas/legends and folktales are the stories of that tribe and are a special thing for that tribe. They keep the special difference and unique experience of life, and the way that a tribe expresses themselves and their experiences of life as practiced as a tribe. Their mythology which is the property of their soul and the heart of a peoples spirit keeps the memory of that experience and their ancestors, and thus them and their culture, ALIVE. If other tribes or peoples who have no ancestral right to that mythology insist upon claiming a right to ownership of that tale or inclusion in that tribes story and all the details of the tale, including the physical details and are not mindful of the context from whence it comes, then that culture will eventually cease to exist. It is no different then if 1 group tells a history of things the way they want it, while leaving out other parts of the story, that is pertinent to another competing group, then the first group profit while the other will pay in terms of cultural survival, for that version of history. They will pay with their culture and their story that is unique to them being ripped apart and shredded, when that happens it is only a matter of time when the people themselves of that culture cease to be no more. One can see a clear example of this in the Native American Indians. They are a tiny number of what they once were, and how many of the native languages of the tribes remain intact. Where ones culture and language go, their people surely follow.
Tolkien was writing a mythology that he fully intended to use the existing ancient European mythology to create a mythology and story especially for England, rooted FIRMLY in the mythology and era that all the other white European mythology is rooted in i.e, a white European mythology, FOR and BY white Europeans.He was trying to add something- a tale, a legend that was quintessentially British/English as meant in the context of the mythology that already existed e.g Arthurian legends, Irish/Celtic/Welsh myths and folktales, as well as Germanic and Scandinavian mythology. For example, trolls, are a Scandinavian folk creature, dwarves are a German folk creature or Icelandic, England and Scandinavian languages are all Germanic, as is Dutch. We Europeans are all from the same family, just different branches, just as Africans are all Africans but with many different tribes.
So Tolkien wanted a mythic saga, like those found in Scandinavia or Germany, but one that was English, even though he also knew that Germans and all Europeans were very much related as a common group of people, whose cultures and languages and DNA are intertwined, he wanted a specific English and especially a Celtic/Anglo-Saxon work, as part, in the whole thing. So yes indeed, the people of middle earth are reflections and representative of the original people of Europe, i.e their people, as they originally were and specifically more of the era when there were different European tribes, and they, whether you like it or not, are white. And long before the Moors there were whites with black hair and brown eyes, so we are talking about Iberians who are white with white bone structure and white skin as they were before any influx of invading Arabs or Moors (who incidentally are not whites, but are their own group type. And the Moors did not take over ALL of the Iberian peninsula, nor did they put their genes into all the population of that peninsula, it is suggested that 16% of Spanish may have Moorish influence, that is all.
What would be much better in terms of real diversity is to see African and Asian myths and legends being put into film, and to have only African cast, I fully support such moves. Let us celebrate the different cultures of the world, not try to mix them all together. So that eventually we have no difference anymore, but everything the same everywhere you go, and that is real poverty of spirit and soul. If people want to create their own myths of African, Indian and Pakistani type, building on what is already there, then do so, I would hate to see white Europeans trying to claim their folklores. Likewise stop trying to hijack white culture, myths and legends, which we have had since long before Tolkien- are our white European heroes of legend to be of every colour too, to be associated with races they were not from, NO. And neither is this work, a white work intended to carry on in the same vein as those ancient legends, depicting the white European cultures and race, and adding to the white European legends that were already there, that was it's purpose, and that is where it belongs. No more cultural destruction and theft.
