Elves, goblins, etc., was Re: Mudbloods

[raolin1 at hotmail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 30655

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Philip Nel <philnel at k...> wrote:
> Like Amanda's husband, I, too, suspect that the goblins -- and the 
house-elves -- will play crucial roles in future books.  As to what 
the goblins are rebelling against, I was inferring that goblins are 
permitted to work only in certain areas of the wizarding world.  That 
is, they seem to be relegated to particular professions -- money-
lending, primarily.  I'm not an expert on
> the history of Jews in Europe, but there seems to be a parallel 
between the goblins' status and the status of Jews in Europe during 
certain periods of history (I'm inclined to say the 17th and 18th 
centuries, but I could well be wrong).  So, I would imagine that the 
goblins have legitimate reasons to rebel against their liminal status.


No, much earlier.  It was a dictate of the Medieval Catholic church 
that charging "usury" -- then defined as interest -- was un-
Christian, therefore Christians were never money-lenders.

I think it's a bit of a jump to say that the goblins are the Jews of 
the wizarding world, though.  Just because we know they run 
Gringotts, it doesn't follow that they are restricted to that 
profession.  We don't know what the goblin rebellions were about.  
Since they seem to have happened hundreds of years ago -- from the 
few dates we are given -- mapping them to current issues with 
goblin/wizard relations is probably futile anyway.


> > And a question--when a prejudice is valid, is it still prejudice? 
> By definition, a prejudice is not justified.  The word means to 
judge beforehand, to judge without knowledge.


Well, yes and no.  A prejudice may very well be justified.  The 
definition of prejudice is 1) injury or damage resulting from some 
judgement or action of another in disregard of one's rights; esp.: 
detriment to one's legal rights or claims  2) preconcieved judgement 
or opinion; an adverse opinion or leaning formed without just grounds 
or before sufficient knowledge.

Justification does not come into play.  In the case of Remus Lupin, 
it is not a case of prejudice, because it *is* well-known that 
werewolves are dangerous: Lupin himself admits it, and his 
transformation in front of the children bears it out.  Sure, Lupin is 
a nice guy, and he took pretty good precautions, but after he slips 
up, even he admits that he cannot allow himself to be in a position 
where it could happen again, so he resigns.  He does *not* say that 
he resigns because of pressure from Hogwarts' students' parents.

Joshua Dyal