Racism in Harry Potter?

[tipsyandtim]

Moving away from the JK Rowling transgender comments that seem to have caused a lot of drama on Twitter, I’ve also seen a lot of discussion about the HP books themselves. Many are claiming that they’re inherently pretty racist for numerous reasons- main characters are all white, characters of other ethnicities are usually minor and seem like tokens and tend to have quite stereotypical names- ‘Cho Chang’ was trending on Twitter as an example of a racist name choice.

Wondered what everybody’s thoughts were? I don’t agree that the text shows JK as ‘incredibly racist’ which some are claiming but I think in hindsight she wouldn’t have made some of the character choices if she could write it again. I suppose a lot of content was planned and created about 25 years ago now and what seemed like adding diversity and representation is actually seen as badly thought-out now, even though I think she had well-meaning intentions.

I can't understand. Are people really objecting to the fact that Hermione, one of the most well-crafted characters in the history of childrens' fiction, is not a single-issue Mary Sue?

I saw a documentary of JK discussing the books years back. She went into a village church and flicked through the church book and this is where she says she got many of her characters names from. Funny if Cho Chang was one of them.

Maybe this argument has been made before but Rowling created a fantastical world of amazing creatures with incredibly evocative names. Albus Dumbledore. Professor McGonaggal. And then the Asian character is Cho Chang?

You can see why she could be accused of racism? Even if unwittingly.

Having said that I am with her on all the gender/sex stuff. I am also a huge HP fan as are my kids. (I was also an Enid Blyton fan as a child and one of her recurring characters was a golliwog...). I think it’s perfectly ok to say ‘the diversity in HP is problematic but JKR is bang on about the trans stuff’ which is the position I hold. I don’t think the two are contradictory. And nor does it stop me from enjoying the HP books.

Maybe this argument has been made before but Rowling created a fantastical world of amazing creatures with incredibly evocative names.
Dean Thomas. Seamus Finnigan. Lavender Brown. Colin Creevey. Katie Bell. Hannah Abbott. Angelina Johnson. Susan Bonds. Ronald Weasley. Harry Potter himself, after all.
All these names could have easily been on any of my children's class lists, to be fair, and Cho Chang or Parvati Patil also do not strike as completely off tune.

JK switches from using very ordinary names and surnames (inc McGonagall, although this is apparently a reference to a terrible Scottish poet) to picking deliberately jokey names (Umbridge-umbrage; Fudge the politician which needs no explanation; Malfoy- bad faith; Diagon Alley- diagonally and so on).

At the time, Cho Chang read like a case of the former to me.

People are looking for issues now if I read a book and the characters were all black I wouldn't be calling it racist . I would be judging the book on the book and the story and wether it was any good
This book is about boarding schools etc especially 20 years ago they would mostly be white middle class so not surprised that's how many have been portrayed
If it was written about a London state school I would expect the characters to be more reflective of the reality

Actually a lot of British boarding schools are incredibly international and have been so for the last decade. My niece went to one where the sixth form was overwhelmingly Asian. Many boarding schools survive because of their international students. And this is not a new phenomenon.

Here you go. 40% of students at British boarding schools are international students...mainly from China.
www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.ft.com/content/98ed81ac-f529-11e9-a79c-bc9acae3b654

But to reiterate my point, it’s perfectly ok to say that Cho Chang demonstrates a casual (possibly racist) approach to Asian names AND that the HP series is otherwise marvellous and she is entirely right on trans issues.
It is possible to hold these multiple and simultaneous viewpoints.

There is very little Scottish students as well. In the films there is only 2. Oliver Wood and funnily enough Cho Chang.

Eh @cardibach? I don't get why I've offended you

When I see you, OP, wondering 'innocently' if JKR's books are racist, discuss the racism inherent in say, most of male-written fantasy, then I will take your 'critique' as genuine.

Seriously, can some people literally not stand to see a successful woman, who donated her way out of the billionaire list, have a voice for women?

Let's be honest, that's why she's under 'critique' atm.

I remember the Blaise character was described as having a very beautiful dark skinned mother. As in her beauty was legendary within the magic world.

How many men of the Western canon are y'all putting under your microscope, I wonder?

Here's a non-sexist way to pose your question, OP, for future reference.

"I've only just learned that a particular genre of fiction may demonstrate the same racism that pervades society. I wonder what you all think about the fantasy genre, and its use of racist tropes?"

Some people are grasping at any old nonsense to try to discredit JKR. It's pathetic.

Harry Potter? What about Star Wars! Darth Vader is dressed in Black and Luke Skywalker in white, racist as hell.

And why are angels in white but demons always in shades of black.

Everything is racist when your eyes have been opened.

What about Star Wars?

I suppose Star Wars doesn't have the temerity to stand up for women. Hence, zero critique from the OP.

There is one character from a Muslim country if not necessarily strictly Muslim himself (same as all the British witches and wizards are from a christian country - and the bible is pretty damn clear on witchcraft) and that is the Egyptian referee of the world cup final, Hassan Mostafa. It's already established there are practising wizards in Egypt because Ron went there and bought a sneakoscope.

So ... definitely wizards - practising wizards - from Muslim countries with names that match their ethnicity. So I ask again (because not every 'muslim' family in Britain is practising same as not every 'christian' family) - why are there none at Hogwarts?

The answer has already been given on this thread. Since you don’t understand it, I suggest you educate yourself on the difference between race / culture / ethnicity / country of origin & RELIGION as you seem to think they all equal the same thing - they don’t.

Some people need to educate themselves on something far more basic - the difference between LIFE and FICTION.

Fiction is not a social justice project, though it may explore themses of social justice.

I lived with a fiction writer of colour for a long time - he thinks even more radically than me - he thinks that fiction's only allegiance is to the sentence, lol.

I've had some wine, but this post has made me now think perhaps we should start a petition as Welsh people for the clear and absurd portrayal of Welsh people in Fireman Sam.

Depectied as nation of pyromaniacs with the IQ of Elvis and the morality of Norman Price 🤔

But no that would be silly....😂😂

@blosstree thanks - sorry for getting that mixed up, as it's a really important point.

At the risk of sounding like an old fogey (I'm only in my 30s honest ) I'm finding the newer Harry Potter fans such hard work. I'd been involved in online fan communities before, tried to get into it again and it was grim. Little to no ability to cope with different opinions, tying themselves in pretzel knots over political correctness and no sense of fun or humour.