British Prof Accuses Tolkien of Colonial Imagery in Lord of the Rings

British Prof Accuses Tolkien of Colonial Imagery in Lord of the Rings

I may have identified Professor Jacobson’s 17th million data point showing that the university system is not salvageable.

Today’s data point comes from the United Kingdom. A University of Nottingham course titled HIST2056: Imagining ‘Britain’: Decolonising Tolkien is drawing a ton of attention for review of J.R.R. Tolkien’s works, especially the iconic The Lord of the Rings, through the “lens of race and mythology”.  But mostly race.

The course, taught by historian Dr. Onyeka Nubia, offers some truly absurd and disturbing perspectives and connections.​

Dr. Onyeka Nubia at University of Nottingham

This man is teaching that Tolkien was a racist and that orcs are an allegory for black people.

I have left the contact number for the university below just in case you fine Tolkien fans would like to express how you feel. pic.twitter.com/I4MDI3dxkr

— High King Fëanor – Alpha Chad of Middle-earth (@LostHistory9) October 17, 2025

A history module called Decolonising Tolkien et al, taught at the University of Nottingham, uses a text that says orcs and other dark-skinned characters in the trilogy are the victims of “ethnic chauvinism”.

Dr Onyeka Nubia, a historian and writer who leads the module, argues that eastern races in the fictional realm of Middle Earth are depicted as evil while fairer-skinned peoples of the west are shown as virtuous.

In academia, “decolonising” usually means re-examining or moving away from white, western viewpoints.

In the module’s core text, Dr Onyeka writes that maligned peoples include Easterlings, Southrons and men from Harad. The trilogy also features the dark-skinned orcs, evil creatures that do the bidding of Sauron, known as the “Dark Lord”.

If you see orcs as black people
YOU are the racist pic.twitter.com/x1sL7Lq4QO

— Nerdrotic (@Nerdrotics) October 17, 2025

What is even more disturbing is the history that this “professor” is presenting as fact.

Dr Nubia, an occasional contributor to the BBC, provided articles saying medieval England “had diverse populations and Africans lived there”, but “ethnic chauvinism” was evident in literature, including Milton’s Paradise Lost, and that the tradition persisted in the works of Tolkien and Lewis.

He claims in the core module text that Shakespeare’s work helped to promote a vision of a “fictional, mono-ethnic English past”. His plays are said to be problematic for “missing direct references to Africans living in England”, creating the “illusion” of racial homogeneity in England.

That being said, there is plenty of material that refutes the assertions about Tolkien’s work. Perhaps the pest comes from Patheos contributor Henry Karlson:

Racism and religious bigotry share a common core. Both forms of bias found Tolkien’s strong objection. Yet, he also realized how difficult it is to overcome either. Indeed, he knew how such ideologies infected the minds of great peoples, which is why the manifestation of this problem often found itself in his works with peoples who had reasons to think themselves to be great (such as the Elves).

The problem is not in the recognition of their own greatness, but in the way they thought it meant others, in their differences, were inferior; those who had some sort of racial pride often became negligent in that pride, causing their own destruction, while those of other races, those who were considered to be inferior, were often the very ones who achieved the greatest deeds of all, showing how far from reality such prejudices actually were.

Perhaps the most important demonstration of this in The Lord of the Rings is found in what Tolkien recorded of the deeds of the Hobbits, the little folk who seemed to be insignificant and yet who, among all others, were the ones who were able to do what needed to be done to save Middle Earth. The Elves, despite their apparent greatness, just stood back and let things fall apart, and in doing so, felt the slow waning of their power and influence in Middle Earth.

I fervently hope that more young people will reflect on whether it is worth the cost of tuition to be subjected to nonsensical ramblings from a DEI enthusiast. Converted to U.S. dollars, the estimated annual cost for a British student typically is about $12,000 USD for most undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. That’s about $50,000 USD without including other expenses.

How much value does a British student truly get by being exposed to this kind of inanity?  It certainly can’t help contribute to the quality of life or employment for young British citizens once they graduate.

I read the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy to my son, and the extended movies are an annual event during Christmas week. It was educational and spiritually uplifting.

I will conclude this piece with my favorite moment from the trilogy.

I wish I could stab the heart of DEI cultism and make it disappear.

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