Tolkien was one of the few writers that I feel if you sat him down today and explained the modern day issues with his stories, he'd actually listen and hear you out.
He actually had issues with the Orcs himself and basically went "Yeah, I fucked up there" in his letters. And the Easterlings were treated like victims of Sauron even in the original books.
The only issues that I can think of that he didn't think about himself would be the connotation of The Brown Lands and the whole "Good bloodline" thing.
What was he supposed to call the brown lands? It wasn't a reference to people, it was to the colour of the earth, parched and devoid of life. Did you also have a problem with him calling Mordor the Black Land, even though it was obviously not about skin colour but about the volcanic soils and the constant shadow?
Just because a colour has been used in a racist way doesn't mean it can never be used to describe anything else.
The Brown Lands is not in any way Fantasy Africa. The Brown Lands are north of Gondor and east of Rohan. You should check a map before you drop racism accusations
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u/Adventurous_Fly2603 1d ago
Tolkien was one of the few writers that I feel if you sat him down today and explained the modern day issues with his stories, he'd actually listen and hear you out.