Blacks in HP (was: Dean again - Bill's living - JKR's activities)

[eccleston at clara.co.uk]

No: HPFGUIDX 21183

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Ebony Elizabeth Thomas" <ebonyink at h...> 
wrote:
> Haggridd wrote:
> 
> >I don't recall any references to Dean's race.  The only persons
> >described as black are both friends of the twins:  Lee Jordan, and
> >Angelina, who went to the Yule Ball with Gred--or was it Forge?  I
> >hope I haven't restated the obvious.
> 
> 
> Lee's never mentioned as being black... it just states that he has 
> dreadlocks.  Anyone with a certain type of hair can twist it into 
dreads.  
> So the probability of him being of another ethnicity is there, 
because I 
> went to school with a Jewish guy who wore dreads.
> 
> Dean's mentioned as black in the American edition of PS (SS 122).  
If he's 
> not black in the UK, then the obvious conclusion is that Scholastic 
did some 
> tampering with the MS for profit's sake.  A great selling point for 
modern 
> kidlit is "multiculturalism"--fellow American teachers, how many 
> inservices/workshops/conferences have you attended on this theme?  
The 
> United States has a significantly greater "ethnic" population than 
the 
> United Kingdom does... bet you anything Scholastic would've put a 
Hispanic 
> character somewhere in Hogwarts if they could have gotten away with 
it.  :-D
> 
> In a couple of weeks, I'll be in the UK attending summer classes at 
Corpus 
> Christi.  One of my two electives is a comparative US/UK education 
course... 
> the research paper I plan to do is a comparison/contrast of 
literate 
> practices between majority/minority children in the schools I'll 
survey.  I 
> wonder if the UK has the same problems educating children who are 
not "the 
> norm" that our country does.
> 
> Of course, we know Hogwarts doesn't have that problem.  :-)
> 
> --Ebony

I think most people in the UK would assume "dreadlocks = black". 
White people with dreadlocks really is quite unusual here