[HPforGrownups] Re: Ron: prejudices, meanness

[heidi]

No: HPFGUIDX 16456



> > And not eveyone is so paranoid as to see prejudices where none
> exist.
>
> Which is EXACTLY the point I was kind of trying to make, which is
> that (to bring this whole discussion back to Ron) one of the
> arguments against Ron in recent threads is that he is somehow racist
> or prejudiced as a person because he has preconceived notions about
> giants, werewolves and house-elves.

There's a difference between holding prejudices and being racist. But they're both surmountable by someone who wants to overcome them, aren't they?

> I was trying to make the point
> that I think Ron's initial reactions are perfectly normal.  If you
> see a guy with a sleeping bag wrapped around himself in front of the
> homeless shelter, you assume he is homeless - but you don't assume
> he's a terrible person.  If you hear that someone is a werewolf, you
> might get scared because it's a known fact that in wolf form they
> turn into terrible creatures that can physically harm and destroy a
> person.  If, a bit later, you realize that the wolf is only dangerous
> in wolf form, and that the human part of him is trustworthy and
> accept that, then, in my eyes, you are not prejudiced, racist, or
> mean-spirited.  If Ron had called someone a "Mudblood" then I might
> feel differently.

Oh, why? Why do you feel that holding beliefs that cause you to use that word are so much more insurmountable and irreversable than holding beliefs that werewolves or giants are dangerous or all house elves like their lives?