The State of Bigotry in JKR's Homeland (was) What not to say in Scotland

[Petra Pan]

[Trigger-Happy here, offering my 
apologies to those not on webview 
for the premature posting of the 
rough draft of the following]

Marley:
> Not that I approve of this
> terrible racism that the 
> Scots have against the English,
> but I do find myself shouting at 
> the TV when American programmes
> call Great Britan 'England'. I 
> think I better shut up now,
> before I offend too many people.

Speaking of racism...

I am curious to hear from the 
Brits of current manifestations 
in the UK of prejudice (which 
of course includes but is not 
limited to racism) or, for a 
lack of better word, anti-
prejudice.  While it's likely 
that JKR writes the HP books 
with the entire globe in mind, 
I am curious to know what 
'village happenings' closer to 
home inform her understanding 
and view of prejudice.

For example, I am curious to 
know what are the prevailing 
(and even not so prevailing 
but nevertheless existing) 
attitudes towards real life 
'mudbloods,' which I am going 
to define here as people whose 
parents are of different genetic 
pools.

Perhaps this would be a good 
place to start: how different 
would those pools have to be to 
trigger bigotry?  Would any child 
of Fred and Angelina?  Would any 
child of Harry and Cho?

Or can bigotry go even deeper?  
Could a person whose parents are 
both Caucasian face prejudice if 
s/he is half-Scottish and half-
English?  I ask because I wonder 
if JKR had concerns about her 
half-English and half-Portuguese 
daughter facing bigotry.  Hmm...
this may be a non-issue even 
before her mother became a 
celebrated author if Jessica can 
pass herself off as Scottish (when 
in Scotland) and English (when in 
England) in appearance.

Y'know, I recall at least half 
of my conversations about HP/JKR 
in Edinburgh to involve a 
reminder from a Scot that JKR is 
not really Scottish.  <g>  

Which intrigued me to no end since 
without the support she received 
in the country she adopted, JKR 
today may still be a struggling 
single mum; she may be English in 
origin, but Scotland's nurturing 
(ex. Scottish Art Council) certainly 
has helped make JKR's success with 
her HP series possible.

I rather thought that there's 
something to be said for that...

Petra
a
n  :)

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