False Racial Stereotypes

Rough Draft

By: Keiran Crain

"When people rely on surface appearances and false racial stereotypes, rather than in-depth knowledge of others at the level of the heart, mind and spirit, their ability to assess and understand people accurately is compromised." -James A. Forbes

Throughout the history of mankind, people have found some issue to divide upon and this leads to separate factions developing throughout the world. Eventually, these factions create false stereotypes for one another and this can lead to the development certain expectations between certain races. The Fellowship of the Ring, written by J.R.R. Tolkien, displays this characteristic in society and a comparison of this text to both the time period it was written and
Throughout the history of mankind, there have been instances when one race feels that they are superior to another race due to a prior circumstance or conflict.The elves had saw themselves "superior to the other races of Middle Earth" due to being the "first child of Ilúvatar", the Creator. Following the events of The Hobbit, the elves see themselves superior to the dwarves due to the dwarves contribution to causing the "the Dark Days" of the elven race. Gimli tries to enter the city of Lothlórien and is immediately barred from entry by the "shadow-gray" elves. The "kindred of the North" believe that Gimli is of an inferior race due to the mistakes that his ancestors made and he is not permitted in the land. The elves made this conclusion without hearing any of the contributions that Gimli had made to both the Fellowship and the leader of the elves, Elrond, and refused to listen to his plea for his case. The elves characterized Gimli as dangerous and incompetent due to their previous actions with dwarves and this led to Gimli being treated in a way that he had not deserved. Throughout the United States, African Americans have often been characterized as inferior to other races due to their past history as slaves due to those of European descent. Even though this period of slavery ended nearly two-hundred years ago, some
Tolkien describes elves as being "fair skinned heavenly beings" that were closer the creator. However, when Tolkien conducts his analysis on orcs, he described them as "dark skinned being ravishing the land." C.S. Lewis, fellow author and friend of Tolkien, stated that there was a relationship between the description of elves and orcs with that of white and blacks throughout the country and Lewis even stated that "[t]he only good orc is a dead or" further showing the inherent racism of the time. This racism of Tolkien is shown through other popular authors of the era including the work of Roald Dahl. In Dahl book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the infamous Oompa Loompas were originally described as African Pygmies that Wonka enslaved due to their low labor costs and willingness to work for the "marvelous cocoa beans" that they worked with, leading to higher profit margins. Dahl preferred this version of the book due to the realism of the story. According to Dahl, the Oompa Loompas were meant to represent workers of the cacao plantations located on the ivory coast that were necessary for European chocolate industry. While Dahl's racism was not intentional, it still existed throughout the novel and had to be removed before mass production. It is often said that authors express their inner