JRR Tolkien is possibly the most influential fantasy writer of all time. However, he was also a product of his time, and from a modern perspective, there are tons of weird racist moments in The Lord of the Rings - both the novel and the movie series. That doesn't mean people shouldn't enjoy Tolkien's work - it has plenty of elements that are worth celebrating - but it's important to recognize the bigoted viewpoints that slipped into his beloved tales.

Racism in The Lord of the Rings isn't as simple as one character using a real-world racial slur to casually disparage an entire group. If the issues were that overt, everyone would have put the series down a long time ago. Perhaps unintentionally, Tolkien brought real-world prejudice into his work, and examining the instances of bigotry in The Lord of the Rings and its related works helps us recognize similar unconscious biases that exist in our society today.