This week I ran into something weird. People proclaiming that orcs (creatures in fantasy stories and games) are racist. My initial response was “Of course orcs are racist! They’re orcs!” Being racist is a known feature of orc culture in every fantasy game and world I’ve ever encountered.
But… It turns out the writers in question aren’t saying that the orcs are racists… They’re saying that the idea of orcs is racist. Somehow, they’re saying that “orcs” are really representations of blacks, Latinos, and native peoples.
Ok… We found the problematic and possibly racist concept here…
If you see a description of a big, fat, stinking, often porcine, rage monster and say, “yep, that’s a black person,” that’s racist. If you are a member of any group and see that description and say, “They’re describing me,” you have some definite problems. Whatever the writer’s intention, if you are seeing the descriptions of orcs I’ve seen and saying “that’s me”, 99 out of 100 times you have problems regardless of what the writer intended!
Tolkien, who lived through WW1 and WW2 and is one creator of the modern orc, said that orcs were emblematic of rage and mindless destruction. He said that there were orcs on both sides of the world wars. Keep in mind he’s talking about Europe. So, he’s talking about Englishmen and Germans, not blacks and Latinos.
Could someone describe a black person as an orc? Yes. I’ve also heard someone describe a woman as a “pigmy hippo”. In neither case does someone saying it make it true (especially when that someone is a third party trying to thrust his/her opinion onto your understanding of a writer’s work).
It also doesn’t mean that orcs are black people or that pigmy hippos are women. There have to be male pigmy hippos out there and there are at least as many “orcs” taking part in KKK rallies as there are anywhere else.
There is the writer’s intent, and there is what the reader sees in the writing. They are not necessarily the same thing. You can see what you want to in a piece of writing, but you can’t choose what the writer meant to say (unless you’re the writer).
So, when you read my stuff (I’m telling you right now so we don’t need any misunderstandings….), are my orcs racists? Yes, they are! They are racist bastards (their parents aren’t married either); however, my depiction of orcs is not racist. I am depicting a race of big, fat, stinking, often porcine, rage monsters. They are not human. They are not a depiction of Blacks, Latinos, Native Americans (that would be the Raven Clan…), Whites, Jews, Gypsies, Pakistanis, podiatrists or politicians; they are a race of non-human big, fat, stinking, often porcine, rage monsters. (in fact, the politicians made up excuses, and the podiatrists noped out, but the rest of those folks are fighting against the orcs somewhere…).
It’s a question of interpretation. If you see orcs and think (insert group here), that’s on you. It takes more than that to prove racism is the writer’s intention.
That’s it for this one dear reader. I have a Raven Clan kid and a red-headed girl with human problems to deal with. See you next post.
Forever Mountain Publishing 