The Racial Hierarchy In the mind of Tolkien race is a hierarchy and is a determinant to how each individual is treated and treats others. White people are are floating on top of the scale while people of color are sinking beneath it. He demonstrates this ludicrous hierarchy in his famous novel The Lord of the Rings. However is race just a myth that is being glorified and accentuated by the people who created the ideology itself? The whitest characters are the Elves as they are credited for the characters’ whiteness. As stated in his novel Frodo’s white skin is described as “fair of hue…pail but beautiful with an elvish beauty.” This quote justifies that the only form of beauty and acceptance is having extraordinarily white skin. Another example is how the men of Gondor, the whitest humans, are on the top the hierarchy because they speak in Elvish tongue. Frodo is given the ability to identify men from Gondor because “it was the elvish tongue t...
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Dark Skin = Dark Heart?
With the recent popularity of addressing race issues in pop culture I have become curious if it is applicable to my own favorite pastime, Dungeons & Dragons. For those of you who do not know of this magical game, Dungeons & Dragons is a roleplaying quest game which is based on the eurocentric fantasy world of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and The Simarillion . There is definitely a white and black juxtaposition, a never ending battle between good and evil, within almost all D&D stories and paths. As a devout D&D fan, there are several moments that have made me ponder if my favorite free-time game is racially inclusive. One of these moments was when I had to create a new character profile. While creating my new profile I began to notice something about the more savage-typed characters, they are generally of non-white skin. These playable charactesr might have white attributes, such as white hair or eyes, but never skin. I even noticed that the more savage they...
The Khajiit and their tale we've all seen before (Elder Scrolls)
Without getting too much into the thick of it (yet), the Khajiit are the cat-like inhabitants of Tamriel (continent of which the game takes place) of in the Elder Scrolls game series. They are 1 of 10 characters types you can choose from, and in-game are given the advantage of having a stronger sneak stat in the beginning of the game than other characters. In Skyrim , they are also given bonuses to ranged and one-handed weapons. Purrfect for a thief! However, these traits, while useful to the player, do little other than paint the Khajiit in a light as anything other than scoundrels and liars, making them subject to much (MUCH) of the racial prejudice in Tamriel. In order to show just how far racial oppression and the Habits of Whiteness extends extend in Tamriel, we can begin by viewing how the Khajiit arrived in their homeland of Elsweyr. Helen Young points out that "[while] twenty-first century fantasy has begun to critique colonialism,...
Habits of Whiteness in the Witcher 3
Habits of Whiteness are something very prevalent in modern stories about the Medieval. A popular game that falls under the genres of fantasy and medievalism is The Witcher 3. It is considered fantasy because of the monsters and fictional plot line that do not correlate to the way the real world works. It is considered medievalism because of things like the time period, the war, and the devotion to the middle ages within the game. Some of these things include the outdated weapons/ the use of swords as well as older buildings and the idea of knighthood. These are all important for understanding the genre of the game. After that, there becomes an issue of race immediately. There are two options for a character: a white male or a white female. That’s it. There is no option to create a character that represents the player in any way. This can maybe be excused because there are minimal options for customization anyway, but it is something to think about. There are peo...