Race/ethnicity nitpicks (was Re: Trolls, OWLs, and such)

[dfrankis at dial.pipex.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 21098

"Michelle Barnett" asked:

> Can someone please tell me where in Canon I can find the references 
> to the race of Cho, Angelina, etc.?  I've read all 4 books like 15 
> times each and I apparently keep missing the refernces.
> 
Cho Chang.  AFAIK, it's the name only.  As some of the other posts 
are making clear, that's not conclusive.

Angelina.  In the 'Goblet of Fire' chapter of GOF, I think.  She's 
tall too.

Lee's dreadlocks are mentioned on the platform in PS/SS.  In the UK 
this would usually imply he's Black.

Dean.  This is interesting.  I'm pretty sure he's not described as 
Black in the UK editions, but he is in the US.  Given that JKR kept 
control of the US versions, I take this to mean he really is Black, 
but she thought explicitly mentioning it was too obvious (ie might 
smack of tokenism), but that Scholastic thought different.  In any 
case, an interesting little light on the publishing process.

Parvati and Padma.  Names only, I think.

Seamus' family supports Ireland and he is scared of Banshees.

Krum is in the Bulgarian team (birth qualification?).  His dad speaks 
Bulgarian.

Karkaroff's name sounds like long-standing Russian (or Belorussian, 
Ukrainian, even Bulgarian etc.) emigre family perhaps via France 
(Russian names are now transliterated into English ending in -ov).  
It doesn't sound Polish, Czech, Yugoslav etc to my ear.

Ludo and Otto Bagman have a slight thousand years out-of-date German 
ring to them.

Ollivander - ancient Greek?

Dedalus Diggle - an immigrant from Tolkien's Middle Earth?

Finally, I don't think we should assume that Asian or other immigrant 
families are Muggles, so that, for example, Cho could be from a 
Wizarding family.

David, still waiting for Ms E. E. Thomas to bring the unique insights 
of her Welsh heritage...