Ethnicity in HP: A utopian depiction?

[Tabouli]

No: HPFGUIDX 33745

Kelly:
> JKR has dropped hints about various secondary characters' ethnicity and
now portrays them in the exact same way as all the other kids in
Hogwarts.  That's the whole idea isn't it?<

Ahhh.  Well.  Time to unleash the cross-cultural psychologist again.  I see JKR's efforts in this department as utopian: presenting the world the way it "should" be to set a good example (all people should be treated exactly the same regardless of race).  However, anyone who's had intimate contact with a culture (different from race, though there's usually a reasonable correlation between the two for various obvious reasons) other than their own will realise that although "treating everyone exactly the same" intuitively sounds fair, in actual fact it's anything but, because people from different cultures are operating by different "rules" of behaviour.

Let's take an Anglo-Australian schoolteacher, for example, dealing with two children in her class (one Anglo-Australian student and one from culture X).  She suspects one of them of stealing someone's keyring, and calls them up in front of the class to ask them questions.  When she interviews the Anglo child, he looks her in the eye and promptly answers all her questions, denying everything. According to her rulebook of behaviour, this means he is being honest, respectful and helpful.  She therefore concludes he is not guilty.  She then treats the child from culture X in exactly the same way.  Fair and non-racist, right?  The X child, on the other hand, avoids her eye and looks at the floor.  He appears deeply uncomfortable, and seems reluctant to answer the questions.  According to her rulebook, this means he has something to hide, is being uncooperative, feels guilty and is therefore probably to blame.  She therefore punishes him.  When the keyring later turns up behind the couch, she is rather puzzled: why did the child from X act so guilty?

The problem here is that she is imposing her own cultural rules on a child who has been raised according to a totally different rulebook.  In X, being publically criticised is about the most disgraceful thing imaginable, especially for a child.  Moreover, in X it is considered extremely rude to look your elders in the eye: a respectful child should look down and receive rebukes in silence.  Effectively, the child from X is being disadvantaged and indeed punished for something he didn't do because he and the teacher do not read behaviour in the same way (and she is convinced that treated everyone exactly the same is the way to be fair and non-racist).  Things like "behaviour which indicates guilt" and "polite, respectful behaviour" are almost invariably defined very, very differently across cultures, and the results if people don't understand this can be catastrophic (70% of Australian companies who attempt to open branches in Asia fail due to these sorts of differences!)

It probably isn't the teacher's fault that she doesn't know how X operates and has only her own cultural assumptions to "read" with, but neither is it the child's that he doesn't realise the likely Anglo-Australian interpretation of his perfectly X-appropriate behaviour (of course, if I may put in a little plug here, a little cross-cultural training for at least the teacher would probably go a long way in this sort of situation...)

I therefore see JKR's depiction of children of non-Anglo-Saxon background as utopian, rather than realistic.  If the differences between cultures really were that cosmetic (different skin colour, food and language, but otherwise Just The Same As Us) there would be no such thing as culture shock, and, I strongly suspect, much less "racism".  I can't speak for the US, but for an increasing number of people in major urban centres in Australia the problem is less "racism" (prejudice based on physical race alone) than ethnocentrism... the belief that one's own culture is normal, right, good, etc., and the standard by which all cultures and people should be judged.  I worked for a while in a residential college with half Anglo-Australians and half international students.  The students who weren't "white" but had Australian accents, Australian tastes in entertainment, Australian attitudes, etc. were happily embraced by the Anglo-Australians.  However, international students (even those of the same "race" as their non-Anglo friends) were avoided and treated with extreme suspicion and discomfort. They just didn't know what to say to them, they were too "different".  Not racially, but culturally.

More Kelly:
> Also, she has portrayed the wizarding world as far more tolerant of
inter-ethnic relationships than the way I perceive the current real
world situation (at least, in the US)< (snip examples) >All of these
 things happen **without** causing raised eyebrows or
whisperings which is the way it should be.<

I must admit, the stories I hear about inter-racial relationships in the US make my blood run cold (Spike Lee's "Jungle Fever" didn't help, either...).  Is it really that bad?  (and what about the UK?  Is the no-eyelids-batted reaction to Fred/Angelina plausible?)  Asian/Caucasian relationships are quite common among young, educated Australians.  Even in the seventies my parents never had anyone spitting on them in the street or refusing to serve them.  There aren't a lot of people of African descent over here (though there's more and more immigration from the Horn of Africa), but I've certainly heard a groundswell among the young educated Australians suggesting that people who are "racially" African but culturally Western (e.g. African Americans) are considered among undergraduates to be about the coolest possible catch one could aspire to!  I'm not alone in surmising this: a rather gorgeous-looking Kenyan-Swiss woman I met in Geneva expressed deep fear about going to "racist" Australia, and the other Australian present emphatically reassured her that far from it, she's be considered incredibly exotic and sexy ("A beautiful black woman with a French accent?  Are you kidding?  Forget racism, the Aussie men will be beating a path to your door!").  Which, of course, could be read as doubtful for different reasons, but anyway.  And I'd be cautious about extending that reassurance too far beyond the educated middle class in major urban centres, or into the institution of marriage...

The most serious prejudice in Australia is against the indigenous people (the Aborigines), where it really is bad.  I suspect a Caucasian/Aboriginal relationship would pose much more of a "Jungle Fever" esque problem.

Answers to OT...

Tabouli.


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