Category: Books

Chris Henning, in the Sydney Morning Herald opines that children’s tales such as the Harry Potter series or the Lord of the Rings, are “fundamentally racist,” and appeal to us on that basis.

Yeah. Of course. It’s obvious now that he mentions it.

The appeal of the Lord of the Rings is fundamentally racist. Middle Earth is inhabited by races of creature deeply marked off from one another by language, physical appearance, and behaviour. It is almost a parody of a Hitlerian vision: orcs are ugly, disgusting, brutal, violent – without exception; elves are a beautiful, lordly, cultured elite; in between are hobbits, short, hairy, ordinary, a bit limited, but lovable and loyal and brave when they have to be.
Individuals within races don’t vary from the pattern. To know one is to know all. The races are either dangerous or they are benign. An orc – any orc – is without question an enemy. A hobbit would never side with an orc.

Okay, let’s consider this.

There’s a certain, shallow accuracy to what Henning writes. We don’t see any orcs turning coat and helping the good guys.

However, the sides are not quite as monolithic as that. There’s conflict in the Shire — with some hobbits siding with Saruman when he shows up there, and others working hand-in-glove with the Ringwraiths. The elves are divided, too — intervene or stay aloof or just high-tail it. The humans are certainly divided amongst different camps.

The “good guys” also fight between themselves. Elves and dwarves have an ancient conflict. Hobbits mistrust humans. Humans mistrust elves. Heck, in The Hobbit, the whole kit-n-kaboodle get into a big battle.

And that’s where this thesis begins to fall apart further. Tolkien’s message, in both The Hobbit (at the Battle of Five Armies) and in LotR is that we of good will must hang together, or else we shall surely hang separately. The Fellowship itself represents an unprecedented alliance of elves and dwarves (who work through their racial differences to become the fastest of friends), along with humans of different factions, and, of course, hobbits. When they work together, they succeed. When they fight amongst themselves, they fail.

Is there some “black and white” thinking in LotR? Well, yes, orcs are evil, and, as “corrupted” elves, that’s all they really can be. You can call that racist if you want, but you might as well call the fixation on Aragorn’s bloodline as being racist, too. It’s a standard element of myth, folks, and perhaps it’s an antequated version of “Us vs. Them,” with the orcs as Them/Outsiders/Enemies, but I don’t know that the LotR would have been any better, or more meaningful, had one of the orcs turned out to be a lover of flowers and elves and trees.

What about Harry?

But … but … Harry and his friends are members of an elite. They are not a race, but their powers are handed down the generations from parents to children. The skills must be inherited before they are developed with teaching at Hogwarts. The reader quickly identifies with this genetic elite, the wizards such as Harry, and despises the talentless, boorish muggles.
How we laugh when the Dursleys get into difficulties! They deserve it. They are, after all, just muggles – hapless, fat, brutal and stupid. They’re all like that. Go on, Harry, hit them again and watch them cry.

Where to begin, where to begin …?

Okay, as a parody of English boarding schools, there’s going to be a certain measure of “eliteness” about the setting. That having been said, everything in the series counters Henning’s thesis. The Dursley’s aren’t despised because they’re magic-less muggles. They’re despised because they are cheap, petty tyrants and spoiled brats, oppressing Harry because he is special.

Indeed, much of the magical behind-the-scenes society seems designed to help protect muggles. Magic is not to be used among them, for example. Muggles, and those wizards who come from “mixed” families, are looked down on — but only by the elitists like Draco Malfoy, who is clearly painted as an undesireable, hateful character.

Without attributing too much profundity to the Potter series, it seems that it’s designed more as a glorification of the Everyman than of the elite. Harry’s just a normal kid, raised amongst muggles. Ron’s family, though magical, is poor, and he has to face that challenge against the rich Malfoys of the world.

Are the wizards of Hogwarts an elite? Well, they certainly have talent and skills — some inherited, some trained. But that’s life. My mother has both talent and skill as a violinist — some native, some trained (and practiced, and practiced, and practiced …). That makes her an “elite” in some way, but a book that glorified the wonders of life at a music academy wouldn’t be accused of racism, would it?

Does holding the idea that some people have special talents in some areas that others do not make one elitist, or racist? I sure hope not.

Harry and the hobbits, with their takeaway racism, offer the same comfort for the whole world: join our tribe, be special with us, despise our subhumans.

I’d say Mr. Henning is trying to read his own political message into these books — and the books belie him at every turn.

(Via Xkot’s Discussion Board)