Was Tolkien Racist?

There's a lot of shite being spouted about racism of late. The politically correct lobby has every one cornered.

If you say:
"I live in Blackpool." - it's discriminatory.

if you say:
"I live in Manchester." - you're sexist.

if you say:
"I'm American." - you're not stupid.



But...Do they have a point? Is there something to be said about changing aged old idea's of what is right and wrong?

(Blackpool and Manchester are English cities)

Or....should our cultural heritage be treasured as a form of time-capsule....picturing times long gone, things said and done, reflecting on how times were?

The adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn were removed from US bookshelves in the 60's because they were supposedly racist.

Agatha Christy's book: 10 little niggers out 1939 had to have its title changed, decades after it was released. (new title: And then there were none).  Seemingly the title was racist (ok, there might be a point there somewhere), but in all her books the criminals were always the rich and well off. (isn't this discrimination of sorts) and the butlers and servents are continually portraid as being too dim to commit these hideous crimes!

Tolkien wrote his books in an age when the working classes, for the first time, were emancipating themselves. Women won the vote and communism was mutating its self into dictatorship.

In the 40's and 50's Tolkien was repeatedly asked if his books were portraying the nazi threat, with the out-numbered good guys being the Allies, and the bad guys being Hitler and his cohorts.
Repeatedly he answered: "No. It's just a fantasy story."

Now, in the politically correct age of white and black being the same (would that be grey?) the 'fantasy story' of Tolkien is being translated as 'white' vs 'black', instead of 'capitalism' vs 'facism'.

Lucas had the same problems with Star Wars. Darth Vader, the big black bad guy, being black was 'obviously' racist. Never mind that the emperor is white, Tarkin was white and Jabba the Hutt was Italian.

Surely this has got to stop!!!!

To sum up the score of the argument, I've put up a picture of an Orc. A nice picture of an Orc which I deliberately stole from someones site without permission....just to piss people off.
This...is supposed to be the 'big black enemy'.

And to finalise the argument.....I've put up a picture of a black person. (also stolen without asking permission):

And anybody who gets the two confused needs a pair of fucking glasses!!!