When I look back on Tolkien I sometimes hesitate to do so with fondness. Sure, he brought us an amazing world filled with magic and Elves and all the wonders that humanity can offer, but he also is reflective of a time and place where people who looked like me were (and in most cases still are) considered less than. He brought us Orcs who he claims are not allegorical to black people, but his later works suggest his early work may have been just that. This website is an ecellent resource for a further discussion about Tolkien and race. However, he is not the entirety of this ten minute set. Actually I want to talk about dog whistles and modern America (read: USA). Just as Tolkien was guilty of eurocentrism our America-first philosophy has begun to develop a particular air of whiteness around the edges that I find particularly disturbing.
Are these United States a melting pot, or are we trying to push towards a new Aryan nation? I begin to question this the more I see people flying American Flags in their truck beds with a second flag below it, be it Trump or Don’t Tread on Me. The meaning of the second flag is bleeding into the meaning for the first. That second flag has, unfortunately, become synonymous with whiteness. There can be little doubt that flying a Trump flag points more to an idealistic mindset of ‘make America the 50’s again’ than any political position. Just the other night Tucker Carlson argued that many in our country are trying to ‘cancel’ the mid-century American principles and values that made us such a great nation. He said, “When the people in charge cancel Dr. Seuss, what they’re really trying to eliminate is a very specific kind of mid-century American culture — a culture that championed meritocracy and colorblindness and the superiority of individual achievement over tribal identity. These were once called “liberal values.” Modern liberals don’t want to be reminded that they once believed any of it.”
There is a lot happening in that diatribe and little to none of it actually reflects the mid-century that actually happened. He wants to put himself on the side of those fighting against oppression when he is clearly aligned with the oppressors. Don’t even get me started on Dr. Seuss. For the record: Dr. Seuss was not cancelled. The Seuss company decided to stop publishing a handful of outdated books that, frankly, did not sell well. These are not the first six to be recalled be it due to moral or sales issues. This is a story now because the people who want to own the conversation need it to be a story. End of Story.
What isn’t the end is this growing sense of racial radicalism that is threatening to draw new battle lines across our nation. We need to recognize it and address it and address who profits from it before we are no longer a ‘we’ at all.