A pox on on both their houses, from my frame of reference.
I will start with the original work of Tolkien.
> Some fans are even questioning if Tolkien was a racist.<
They finally noticed? Like so many of the greats of British literature, the human enemies were all dark skinned people from the south. Of course Tolkien was a racist. It’s very hard to find a Brit back in those days who wasn’t a racist.
This does not excuse the racism in the books, but it does identify why it is there.
That said, the issue of changing the race of some of the characters becomes a difficult one. If the changing of the races serves the storyline, then it is justified. If it is just done to make a token show of, “Look how non-racist we are!“ Then it is morally repugnant. Making a show of being not racist is not a good thing. Actually not being racist is a good thing.
Consider the remake of the Sherlock Holmes story which placed Holmes in our utterly non Victorian New York City and made Dr. Watson an oriental woman. When I heard the series was coming up I was interested because I am always interested in what is being done with the Holmes milieu. Nevertheless, I anticipated it would be a piece of garbage presenting itself as incredibly wonderful and ‘with it’ and all the great things that come with artificially and nonsensically casting minority characters in classically white roles for no good reason but only to engage in virtue signaling and good sales tactics.
I loved the show. It had its flaws and it was far from perfect, not least of which was that it really wasn’t presenting the kinds of mysteries that Sherlock Holmes solved, but it was nevertheless an excellent and interesting adaptation.
So, at this point, I have no idea as to whether the casting of non-White characters in what was originally an all white series (with the exception of the evil Southerns) is good or bad. I can tell only after I have observed the results by watching the show.
In short, both sides are being excessive in their prejudicial responses.
Note: First, I must clarify that when I’m referring to a pox on both their houses I mean those who are defending and those who are attacking the changes without actually knowing anything about how the series unfolds. Therefore, in fairness, I must add that the defense made of these changes by those involved in producing the series sound valid. But I will not attempt a judgment until I have seen the results.
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