A science fiction writer says that the Lord of the Rings author, J.R.R. Tolkien, was racist

because he didn't like orcs.

True story.

Author Andy Duncan told Wired Magazine, quote, and this is a real quote, it's hard to

miss the repeated notion in Tolkien that some races are just worse than others.

In the long term, if you embrace this too much, it has dire consequences for yourself

and for society.

Unquote.

Duncan, who has won many science fiction and fantasy awards, including the award for

making a fuss about other nonsense and the prestigious award for attacking the author

who created the genre in which he wins awards has a point.

We must not regard orcs as evil warriors raised from the earth by the dark lord, just

because their evil warriors raised from the earth by the dark lord.

People might soon begin to prejudge orcs and feel they shouldn't move into their neighborhoods

riding on the backs of battle wolves and driving their jagged swords into the hearts of the

innocent.

Before you know it, every time an orc gets in an elevator, the women there will

instinctively clutch their purses so that their severed hands will later be hard to detach

from the purses they were clutching when the orc cut them to pieces.

Tolkien did indeed speak in very big of the terms about the multicolored goblin-like

creatures whom he said had hearts of granite to form bodies and foul faces which smile

not.

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