The lazy, white supremacist trope in fantasy writing where nonhuman races represent nonwhite humans has a name now: Tolkien Minorities.
That is all.
@leila So Gandalf was basically a magical negro? 🤯
@lafnlab I mean, I think the trope is applied most vigorously in "monstrous" and especially dark-skinned fantasy races, while Gandalf was put forward as kind of an idealized white man, in sort of an equal and opposite way to how orcs were supposed to epitomize "savage" dark-skinned people threatening white Europe.
Elves were idealized whites, too, so clearly there's some complexity to deal with here.
@lafnlab I'm going to propose a test: If casting a person of color to play a character would make white fandom throw a temper tantrum, that character is not a Tolkien Minority.
@leila It could be like the Bechdel test.
@lafnlab (not as originally written, though filmmakers/scriptwriters might choose to make them one in the movie adaptation, à la black Hermione in the Harry Potter play)