[HPforGrownups] Cultural values and beauty

[Ebony Elizabeth Thomas]

No: HPFGUIDX 20535

Up late... :)

Tabouli wrote (among other thought-provoking things--great post!):

"Perhaps she's hinting that cultural and racial differences are irrelevant 
in the magic world, because everyone identifies as magic in contrast to the 
muggles and other magical species.  Or that Cho and the Patils and Angelina 
and co are completely assimilated to British culture."

This is exactly what I think is going on.  Except I don't think Cho, the 
Patils, and Angelina are necessary assimilated to *British* culture... they 
were born to wizarding families.  I think that JKR is dealing with the issue 
of racism and bigotry in other ways.  Let's not forget that this is not the 
Muggle world we're dealing with in the books.  ;-)

This is *not* to say I believe in characters whose ethnicity is only skin 
deep.  In my original fiction, almost all of my characters are of African 
descent, with a smattering of 'Ricans, Mexicans, and folks from the 
islands--my own family, my own ethnic makeup.  As a young writer who hadn't 
experienced much outside her world, I naturally began with what I knew.  
Even when I started writing Harry Potter fanfiction, I chose to deal with 
Africa and its Diaspora in this milieu and how magic fit into the slave 
trade.  I plan to speculate on the Latin American side of the wizarding 
world in another fic.

However, those are my personal choices as a writer.  I do not feel as if 
they have to be Jo Rowling's.

I don't feel as if Rowling has some sort of sociocultural obligation to 
explore every Muggle ethnic group represented in the books.  The books are 
not about exploring Muggle heritage.  The books are not a self-esteem 
program.  They are about magic.  (For more on why the Let's Show the 
Characters' Ethnic Differences! idea is extremely problematic, please refer 
to my recent post on "multiculturalism" in the OT-Chatter list archives.)

Sure, it'd be interesting to see what Rowling would do with exploring the 
so-called ethnic characters lives' in depth.  Personally, I'd *much* rather 
see this not done at all than done poorly... and too often it is done 
*poorly*.  This well-meaning sentiment that misses the mark is summed up 
excellently by a young black engineer in a study on race and culture who 
said, "Don't presume you know what it's like to be me, that you know more 
about me than I know about myself just because you've walked a mile in my 
shoes.  I've walked *hundreds* of miles in these shoes, and I still don't 
understand everything about my journey."  Too often, when I read about black 
and Hispanic characters in unexpected places, I cringe.  Or grit my teeth.  
Or feel as if I am being lectured by a teacher who is unqualified to deliver 
the lesson in the first place.  In those cases, I find myself wishing the 
author had just left well enough alone.

So the problem we face is this.  How, then, do you write a mulitfaceted 
character from a culture that is not your own, having them retain their 
authenticity?  Cultural nuances are often so subtle that you run the risk of 
offending a whole lot of people if you get it wrong.  Research only goes so 
far.  So does knowing only a handful of people from the group in question.

I like it when I'm pleasantly surprised.  And I can't tell you why at nearly 
2 a.m., but the Harry Potter series pleasantly surprised me when it came to 
ethnicity of characters.

This is just my personal preference, but I appreciate it a lot better when a 
writer allows me, the reader, to fill in the blanks instead of filling them 
in incorrectly with guesses and half-baked stereotypes.  I appreciate JKR 
immediately for doing this, and plan to follow her example in my own 
writing.

--Ebony AKA AngieJ
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