美国国家公共电台 NPR--Why Black characters in 'Rings of Power' and 'Little Mermaid' make fantasy better

Why Black characters in 'Rings of Power' and 'Little Mermaid¹' make fantasy better

Transcript²

My first reaction when I saw the email was exasperation³: This is not a debate we should still be having in 2022.

The note popped up from a listener a few days after my review of Amazon Prime Video's The Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power was broadcast on NPR.

"I was embarrassed for you about your review of Rings of Power," the message read. The author contended that author J.R.R. Tolkien created the world the TV show is based on as mythology⁴ inspired by English history. "Your 'discomfort⁵' at fantasy being at [sic] Eurocentric and white centered betrays a profound ignorance of the material and smacks⁶ of irrelevance⁷ and narcissism⁸. The story isn't about you and doesn't have to be."

I got similar feedback from a few sources on social media after my review was broadcast. In the piece, I admitted toward the end that the series still felt awfully⁹ white-centered to me, despite a few key characters portrayed¹¹ by performers of color.

More recently, after the trailer dropped for Disney's live action reboot of The Little Mermaid, racists complained about Halle Bailey bringing her Black Girl Magic to the role, making boneheaded hashtags like #notmyariel and #gowokegobroke trend on social media.

Amid grousing¹³ about "white erasure¹⁴" — as if white people are now or have ever been historically underrepresented in fantasy films — it all felt like a twisted version of the argument former Fox News Channel anchor Megyn Kelly once made when she insisted that the fictional¹⁵ Santa Claus was white. (Fun fact: that outburst was triggered by a column NPR colleague Aisha Harris wrote back when she worked for Slate¹⁶.)

But as columnists¹⁷ and late night hosts craft their snarky insults about pop culture racism¹⁸, it's worth noting why so many fans are reacting this way: the original works that they love were super white-centered in the first place.

And these ideas about who gets to stand at the center of pop culture sorely need to be challenged.

Talking honestly about race in fantasy TV

Frankly¹⁹, as a Black TV and media critic who speaks out often on race issues, it's not new to find some audience members severely²⁰ triggered whenever the topic comes up. You can try to place your comments in perspective, but all they see is a beloved piece of media "tarnished²¹" by the observation that it was created to elevate white culture in a way that should be interrogated²² and changed.

And the louder they complain, the more on-target the observation usually is.

My letter-writer noted²³ that English author J.R.R. Tolkien created The Lord of the Rings universe long ago – The Hobbit was first published in 1937 – and based its world on medieval culture, arguing its white-centeredness is inevitable²⁴ and appropriate. The message compared the franchise²⁵'s focus on white characters to the Black and brown-centrism of works like Hamilton and Roots.

Leaving aside the fact Roots is not fantasy, but a story that's Black-centered because it's about a real-life Black family — sigh — such reasoning seems to assume we're talking about an evenly-populated pop culture landscape, where there is no need to compensate²⁶ for the fact that so many iconic science fiction, superhero and fantasy stories over the years have reflexively excluded non-white character and cultures.

But read the stories highlighting how young Black girls reacted to seeing a non-white Ariel in a beloved children's story, and you get a sense of how much power comes from seeing someone like yourself at the center of such a moving pop culture property.

And how damaging it is when people who look like you are rarely or never allowed in that spotlight²⁷.

That dynamic of enshrining beloved characters as forever white is the very definition of white privilege, communicating a sense of belonging and cultural domination that — if it isn't challenged by multicultural²⁸ casting — gets passed down from generation to generation as a mechanism²⁹ of marginalization that stubbornly resists modern mores³⁰.

Of course, none of this logic³¹ has pre-empted the nonsensical arguments pushing back against multicultural casting that fill social media and the entertainment press.

Rings of Power star Ismael Cruz Cordova – a native of Puerto Rico and the first person of color to play a major elf character in a Lord of the Rings movie or TV show – says his email inbox has filled with a constant deluge³² of "pure and vicious hate speech" since his casting was announced two years ago. (Fortunately, actors from Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies and Cordova's castmates on Rings of Power have also stepped up to denounce racist¹² criticism of the new series' multiculturalism³³.)

Even Elon Musk³⁴ weighed in, providing a criticism of the show that seemed more like a dog whistle to his tech bro fanbase. "Tolkien is turning in his grave," Musk wrote on Twitter. "Almost every male character so far is a coward, a jerk or both. Only Galadriel is brave, smart and nice." This comment, unsurprisingly, ignores Cordova's character, who is also pretty heroic.

But dunking on people who think a fantasy about elves, wizards and hobbits can somehow be made less "realistic" by casting some characters with Black and brown performers, misses an important part of this discussion.

These new visions of classic fantasy worlds and characters are simply a reflection of our new, more multicultural world. And that's probably what most scares fans who are used to white-centered fantasy.

TV shows set in the past are often about the present

Beyond the race of specific characters, this fantasy world – and the other major TV fantasy franchise inspired by it, Game of Thrones – embraces an ethos which sees white as the embodiment of good and dark as the embodiment of evil, including and especially in living beings.

Elves, the immortal³⁵ superheroes of Tolkien's fictional universe, are blindingly white – blonde-haired, blue-eyed and fair-skinned champions of the light. Orcs, the misshapen foot soldiers of evil forces, are swarthy and dark, twisted into hideously³⁶ horrifying³⁷ shapes.

As I have written before, a film or TV show set in the past – even a fictional past, inspired by real life history – is as much about the sensibilities and attitudes of the time when that work is created as the time it depicts³⁸.

Which means that Tolkien's original versions of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings were wrapped up in pre-war and post war social issues – particularly, the evils of narcissistic³⁹ authoritarianism⁴⁰ (some experts have quoted from the author's personal letters to show Tolkien, who died in 1973, was opposed to Nazism⁴¹, anti-Semitism and Adolf Hitler). Peter Jackson's white-centered films of Tolkien's stories reflected the obliviousness⁴² about race that big budget Hollywood films could get away with in the early and mid-2000s.

Jackson's films were also filled with British actors and characters speaking English with a British accent, furthering the idea that this fictional universe was just some slightly twisted vision of a medieval-era adventure tale — rather than a bold new landscape where the audience's view of culture and heritage could be challenged.

Producers of the TV versions of Lord of the Rings and the HBO Game of Thrones spin off House of the Dragon are trying to figure out just how much of the world's current attention to multiculturalism they can feature without upending the series. (In a previous column, I wrote about how the sociological dynamic called Group Threat Theory explains many of these negative fan reactions.)

Stuck in the middle are non-white fans with a simple question: Why can't we equally — at long last — be a part of this universe, too?

Why doesn't our exclusion⁴³ feel inauthentic, given that some experts say non-white people have existed in Europe back to the Roman era? How does including a wider range of character types ruin a story which already features new characters and expanded storylines?

My arguments for such diversity don't focus on fairness or equity⁴⁴ — which are, nevertheless, laudable goals. I say that these casting moves actually improve the storytelling: potential roles are opened up to a wider range of talented performers, and writers have new depths to explore in future storylines, if they have the guts⁴⁵ to try.

Will future stories explain why there are elves and hobbits of different skin colors? Does Ariel's skin color matter in the world of this new Little Mermaid, and will the film explore why or why not? In Rings of Power, we see human prejudice against elves, but what other prejudices or cultural differences may be at work? Can any of those characters among the dark villains⁴⁶, the Orcs, move toward heroism⁴⁷ or be redeemed⁴⁸?

It may sound like I'm asking a lot from these venerated⁴⁹ works. But if the Game of Thrones prequel can spend time dissecting⁵⁰ sexism in its world, surely they can find some space for racial issues as well. Now that producers have opened the door, they should take advantage of all the new storytelling opportunities they have created, echoing the debates underway right now in real life.

Placing a few actors of color in key roles doesn't fully¹⁰ challenge the thinking that's led so many fans to assume franchises⁵¹ like The Lord of Rings and The Little Mermaid should always be the exclusive province of white characters and white culture.

1 mermaid   

n.美人鱼

参考例句：

• How popular would that girl be with the only mermaid mom!和人鱼妈妈在一起，那个女孩会有多受欢迎！
• The little mermaid wasn't happy because she didn't want to wait.小美人鱼不太高兴，因为她等不及了。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 exasperation   

n.愤慨

参考例句：

• He snorted with exasperation.他愤怒地哼了一声。
• She rolled her eyes in sheer exasperation.她气急败坏地转动着眼珠。

4 mythology   

n.神话，神话学，神话集

参考例句：

• In Greek mythology,Zeus was the ruler of Gods and men.在希腊神话中，宙斯是众神和人类的统治者。
• He is the hero of Greek mythology.他是希腊民间传说中的英雄。

5 discomfort   

n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便

参考例句：

• One has to bear a little discomfort while travelling.旅行中总要忍受一点不便。
• She turned red with discomfort when the teacher spoke.老师讲话时她不好意思地红着脸。

6 smacks   

掌掴（声）( smack的名词复数 )； 海洛因； （打的）一拳； 打巴掌

参考例句：

• His politeness smacks of condescension. 他的客气带有屈尊俯就的意味。
• It was a fishing town, and the sea was dotted with smacks. 这是个渔业城镇，海面上可看到渔帆点点。

7 irrelevance   

n.无关紧要；不相关；不相关的事物

参考例句：

• the irrelevance of the curriculum to children's daily life 课程与孩子们日常生活的脱节
• A President who identifies leadership with public opinion polls dooms himself to irrelevance. 一位总统如果把他的领导和民意测验投票结果等同起来，那么他注定将成为一个可有可无的人物。 来自辞典例句

8 narcissism   

n.自我陶醉，自恋

参考例句：

• Those who suffer from narcissism become self-absorbed.自恋的人会变得自私。
• The collective narcissism of the Kerouac circle is ultimately boring.凯鲁亚克和他周围人物的集体自我陶醉欲最终使人厌烦不已。

9 awfully   

adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地

参考例句：

• Agriculture was awfully neglected in the past.过去农业遭到严重忽视。
• I've been feeling awfully bad about it.对这我一直感到很难受。

10 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

11 portrayed   

v.画像( portray的过去式和过去分词 )；描述；描绘；描画

参考例句：

• Throughout the trial, he portrayed himself as the victim. 在审讯过程中，他始终把自己说成是受害者。
• The author portrayed his father as a vicious drunkard. 作者把他父亲描绘成一个可恶的酒鬼。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

12 racist   

n.种族主义者，种族主义分子

参考例句：

• a series of racist attacks 一连串的种族袭击行为
• His speech presented racist ideas under the guise of nationalism. 他的讲话以民族主义为幌子宣扬种族主义思想。

13 grousing   

v.抱怨，发牢骚( grouse的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He's always grousing about the workload. 他总是抱怨工作量大。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The group are grousing about the service in the hotel restaurant. 旅游团对这家饭店餐厅的服务质量抱怨颇多。 来自互联网

14 erasure   

n.擦掉，删去；删掉的词；消音；抹音

参考例句：

• The past was erased, the erasure was forgotten, the lie became truth. 过去给人擦拭个干净，擦拭的行为又忘了个干净，于是，谎言就变成了真理。 来自英汉文学
• The inspection, modification, replacement or erasure of part of file's contents. 检查、修改、代替或擦去文档内容一部分的过程。 来自互联网

15 fictional   

adj.小说的，虚构的

参考例句：

• The names of the shops are entirely fictional.那些商店的名字完全是虚构的。
• The two authors represent the opposite poles of fictional genius.这两位作者代表了天才小说家两个极端。

16 slate   

n.板岩，石板，石片，石板色，候选人名单；adj.暗蓝灰色的，含板岩的；vt.用石板覆盖，痛打，提名，预订

参考例句：

• The nominating committee laid its slate before the board.提名委员会把候选人名单提交全体委员会讨论。
• What kind of job uses stained wood and slate? 什么工作会接触木头污浊和石板呢？

17 columnists   

n.专栏作家( columnist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This story will be more fodder for the gossip columnists. 这个传闻会是闲谈专栏作家的又一素材。
• The columnists coined the phrase \"to broderick\", meaning to rough up. 专栏作家们杜撰出一个新词“布罗德里克”意思是“动武”、“打架”。 来自辞典例句

18 racism   

n.民族主义；种族歧视(意识)

参考例句：

• He said that racism is endemic in this country.他说种族主义在该国很普遍。
• Racism causes political instability and violence.种族主义道致政治动荡和暴力事件。

19 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

20 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

21 tarnished   

（通常指金属）（使）失去光泽，（使）变灰暗( tarnish的过去式和过去分词 )； 玷污，败坏

参考例句：

• The mirrors had tarnished with age. 这些镜子因年深日久而照影不清楚。
• His bad behaviour has tarnished the good name of the school. 他行为不轨，败坏了学校的声誉。

22 interrogated   

v.询问( interrogate的过去式和过去分词 )；审问；（在计算机或其他机器上）查询

参考例句：

• He was interrogated by the police for over 12 hours. 他被警察审问了12个多小时。
• Two suspects are now being interrogated in connection with the killing. 与杀人案有关的两名嫌疑犯正在接受审讯。 来自《简明英汉词典》

23 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

24 inevitable   

adj.不可避免的，必然发生的

参考例句：

• Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
• The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。

25 franchise   

n.特许，特权，专营权，特许权

参考例句：

• Catering in the schools is run on a franchise basis.学校餐饮服务以特许权经营。
• The United States granted the franchise to women in 1920.美国于1920年给妇女以参政权。

26 compensate   

vt.补偿，赔偿；酬报 vi.弥补；补偿；抵消

参考例句：

• She used her good looks to compensate her lack of intelligence. 她利用她漂亮的外表来弥补智力的不足。
• Nothing can compensate for the loss of one's health. 一个人失去了键康是不可弥补的。

27 spotlight   

n.公众注意的中心，聚光灯，探照灯，视听，注意，醒目

参考例句：

• This week the spotlight is on the world of fashion.本周引人瞩目的是时装界。
• The spotlight followed her round the stage.聚光灯的光圈随着她在舞台上转。

28 multicultural   

adj.融合多种文化的，多种文化的

参考例句：

• Children growing up in a multicultural society.在多元文化社会中长大的孩子们。
• The school has been attempting to bring a multicultural perspective to its curriculum.这所学校已经在尝试将一种多元文化视角引入其课程。

29 mechanism   

n.机械装置；机构，结构

参考例句：

• The bones and muscles are parts of the mechanism of the body.骨骼和肌肉是人体的组成部件。
• The mechanism of the machine is very complicated.这台机器的结构是非常复杂的。

30 mores   

n.风俗，习惯，民德，道德观念

参考例句：

• The mores of that village are hard to believe.那村子的习俗让人难以置信。
• We advocate a harmonious society where corruption is swept away,and social mores are cleared.我们提倡弊绝风清，建设一个和谐社会。

31 logic   

n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性

参考例句：

• What sort of logic is that?这是什么逻辑？
• I don't follow the logic of your argument.我不明白你的论点逻辑性何在。

32 deluge   

n./vt.洪水，暴雨，使泛滥

参考例句：

• This little stream can become a deluge when it rains heavily.雨大的时候，这条小溪能变作洪流。
• I got caught in the deluge on the way home.我在回家的路上遇到倾盆大雨。

33 multiculturalism   

n.多元文化

参考例句：

• Switzerland is well known for cheese fondue, penguin parades and its multiculturalism. 瑞士一向以芝士火锅，企鹅游行和多元文化等特色闻名于世。
• That may be one reason why multiculturalism came easily to it. 这也是多元文化容易适应发展的原因之一。

34 musk   

n.麝香, 能发出麝香的各种各样的植物，香猫

参考例句：

• Musk is used for perfume and stimulant.麝香可以用作香料和兴奋剂。
• She scented her clothes with musk.她用麝香使衣服充满了香味。

35 immortal   

adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的

参考例句：

• The wild cocoa tree is effectively immortal.野生可可树实际上是不会死的。
• The heroes of the people are immortal!人民英雄永垂不朽！

36 hideously   

adv.可怕地，非常讨厌地

参考例句：

• The witch was hideously ugly. 那个女巫丑得吓人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Pitt's smile returned, and it was hideously diabolic. 皮特的脸上重新浮现出笑容，但却狰狞可怕。 来自辞典例句

37 horrifying   

a.令人震惊的，使人毛骨悚然的

参考例句：

• He went to great pains to show how horrifying the war was. 他极力指出战争是多么的恐怖。
• The possibility of war is too horrifying to contemplate. 战争的可能性太可怕了，真不堪细想。

38 depicts   

描绘，描画( depict的第三人称单数 )； 描述

参考例句：

• The book vividly depicts French society of the 1930s. 这本书生动地描绘了20 世纪30 年代的法国社会。
• He depicts the sordid and vulgar sides of life exclusively. 他只描写人生肮脏和庸俗的一面。

39 narcissistic   

adj.自我陶醉的，自恋的，自我崇拜的

参考例句：

• In the modern vocabulary, it was narcissistic. 用时髦话说，这是一种自我陶醉狂。 来自辞典例句
• This is our Nielaoshi, a dwarf has also grown narcissistic teachers. 这就是我们的倪老师，一个长得又矮又自恋的老师。 来自互联网

40 authoritarianism   

权力主义，独裁主义

参考例句：

• Modern authoritarianism is a vestige of traditional personal rule. 现代独裁主义则是传统的个人统治的残余。
• In its latter days it was a byword for authoritarianism, incompetence, and corruption. 在后期，它是独裁、无能和腐化的代号。

41 Nazism   

n. 纳粹主义

参考例句：

• His philosophical eyes were obviously shortsighted by the evil influence of Nazism. 显然，他那双哲学家般的深邃的眼睛也被纳粹的妖氛所眩惑。 来自中国文学部分
• Nazism suppressed all three movements as degenerate. 纳粹把所有三个运动都作为颓废艺术而加以镇压。

42 obliviousness   

参考例句：

• Her obliviousness of what was happening in Germany seems extraordinary. 真没想到她对德国正在发生的事情居然一无所知。 来自柯林斯例句

43 exclusion   

n.拒绝，排除，排斥，远足，远途旅行

参考例句：

• Don't revise a few topics to the exclusion of all others.不要修改少数论题以致排除所有其他的。
• He plays golf to the exclusion of all other sports.他专打高尔夫球，其他运动一概不参加。

44 equity   

n.公正，公平，（无固定利息的）股票

参考例句：

• They shared the work of the house with equity.他们公平地分担家务。
• To capture his equity,Murphy must either sell or refinance.要获得资产净值，墨菲必须出售或者重新融资。

45 guts   

v.狼吞虎咽，贪婪地吃，飞碟游戏（比赛双方每组5人，相距15码，互相掷接飞碟）；毁坏（建筑物等）的内部( gut的第三人称单数 )；取出…的内脏n.勇气( gut的名词复数 )；内脏；消化道的下段；肠

参考例句：

• I'll only cook fish if the guts have been removed. 鱼若已收拾干净，我只需烧一下即可。
• Barbara hasn't got the guts to leave her mother. 巴巴拉没有勇气离开她妈妈。 来自《简明英汉词典》

46 villains   

n.恶棍( villain的名词复数 )；罪犯；（小说、戏剧等中的）反面人物；淘气鬼

参考例句：

• The impression of villains was inescapable. 留下恶棍的印象是不可避免的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Some villains robbed the widow of the savings. 有几个歹徒将寡妇的积蓄劫走了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

47 heroism   

n.大无畏精神，英勇

参考例句：

• He received a medal for his heroism.他由于英勇而获得一枚奖章。
• Stories of his heroism resounded through the country.他的英雄故事传遍全国。

48 redeemed   

adj. 可赎回的，可救赎的 动词redeem的过去式和过去分词形式

参考例句：

• She has redeemed her pawned jewellery. 她赎回了当掉的珠宝。
• He redeemed his watch from the pawnbroker's. 他从当铺赎回手表。

49 venerated   

敬重（某人或某事物），崇敬( venerate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• My father venerated General Eisenhower. 我父亲十分敬仰艾森豪威尔将军。
• He used the sacraments and venerated the saints. 他行使圣事，崇拜圣人。 来自英汉非文学 - 文明史

50 dissecting   

v.解剖（动物等）( dissect的现在分词 )；仔细分析或研究

参考例句：

• Another group was dissecting a new film showing locally. 另外一批人正在剖析城里上演的一部新电影。 来自辞典例句
• Probe into Dissecting Refraction Method Statics Processing under Complicated Surface Conditions. 不同地表条件下土壤侵蚀的坡度效应。 来自互联网

51 franchises   

n.（尤指选举议员的）选举权( franchise的名词复数 )；参政权；获特许权的商业机构（或服务）；（公司授予的）特许经销权v.给…以特许权，出售特许权( franchise的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• TV franchises will be auctioned to the highest bidder. 电视特许经营权将拍卖给出价最高的投标人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Ford dealerships operated as independent franchises. 福特汽车公司的代销商都是独立的联营商。 来自辞典例句