Now this speaks about television specifically because the theory itself is a bit dated but it is still prevalent in arguments people use today for modern media mediums. Think: “Violent video games are going to make my kid violent.” People who cry racism to the orcs description in D&D may have a few underlying concerns for what this can turn out to be.
1) This fictional “racism” is going to transfer into the promotion of real-world racist attitudes.
2) These negative tropes strip these fictional characters of their individualism & label them according to their race.
The argument against number 1 is that there is little to no evidence suggesting that what we see in the media will translate to our real-world actions. What’s fictional generally stays in the land of fiction.
The argument against number 2 is that there is little to no grounded traction for the argument to gain a foothold. The first thing we need to realize is we are discussing a fictional character that has no real world connection. After reading quite a bit into this topic, the online consensus of which race orcs are related to is that there is no consensus. Some believe it is referring to Asian groups, others believe African groups. This inconsistency in itself is evidence that some viewers may be projecting their own stereotypes onto the orc race.