How do you define a mudblood?

[nlpnt at yahoo.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 28670

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., davidjfein at h... wrote:
> This may be easy, but how do you define it?  If Lily Potter came 
from 
> two muggle parents, she is a mudblood.  But, would Harry be a 
> mudblood because of muggle lineage, or would the fact that Lily was 
> not a muggle be enough to make Harry a pureblood?
> 
> Dave

There are a number of possibilities; I'm going to be a bit sketchy on 
the historical precedents since it's been a while since I was in a 
history classroom, and institutionalized hatred was never my favorite 
area of study. 

-The "one drop" standard of racial purity, as seen in the American  
South during the segregation era---if you have one drop of Muggle 
blood, you're a Mudblood (to set it up in HP terms.)

-The one-eighths standard; You have two parents, four grandparents, 
eight great-grandparents. Anything before that, we don't care about 
but if any one of those was a Muggle, you're a Mudblood- say it loud 
and say it proud!  
(Less humorously, this was used to determine mixed (Jewish) status in 
Nazi Germany, IIRC.)

-The standard of convenience. Pop Malfoy may call him that all the 
time in private, but he's popular in the wizarding world and to 
denounce him would only make the denouncer look bad so he tells Draco 
to hold his tongue. (Too many real-life precedents....)

-And my favorite, the theory first promulgated right here, that Lily 
IS from a wizarding family, and Petunia is a Squib. 

Noel (who wishes Yahoo groups would load faster so he could keep up)