I knew it was a matter of time before liberals found a reason to oppose Tolkien.
It started long, long ago.
A Marxist PhD. in Musicology (Thesis on Rap) I had for Music Literature in 2004 denounced Tolkien as a racist at the end of class, because I dared to speak of W. H. Auden’s positive review of TLOTR.
Tolkien has been historically slandered by leftist professors, I suspect, for the following reasons:
He was a white male from South Africa.
He was a staunch Catholic.
His myth is quasi-Nordic, which emphasizes a pseudo-European civilization.
The Southrons and some others that warred with Arnor and Gondor were darker than the Numenoreans.
The Orcs were black(-ish) - although it is made clear they were Elves in their origin, and were tortured and cursed by Morgoth, master of Sauron.
Tolkien was a world-class expert on Beowulf and Norse Mythology. Of course he would write what he knew.
In real life, he openly resisted any attempt by actual racists to conflate his story with such a political narrative.
This woman who denounced him, by the bye, spent much of the term vilifying white males for “emasculating the black male” and was one of the two most arrogant and offensive college teachers I have ever had.
Her unfounded assertion was: “Tolkien was a racist, you know!”
Actually, I did not, and do not, know that - but she had already left without allowing me to make any rebuttal.