Ethnicity in HP: an Utopian depiction?

[lucky_kari]

No: HPFGUIDX 33914

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "cityhawk1" <cityhawk at p...> wrote:

> Sorry if this has been said before, as I haven't followed this 
> thread all the way back to the beginning, but one of the things that 
> I love about HP is the way that bigotry is satirized by removing it 
> from being about ethnicity and placing it on wizarding blood. The 
> Malfoys and those who think like they do are the wizarding world's 
> metaphor of racism/ethnocentrism/bigotry-against-anything. This way, 
> Rowling can make a statement without pitting real-world ethnicities 
> against each other. We're made to indentify with the "mudbloods" 
> (since, after all, we all come from muggle families) in ways that we 
> can't if the bigotry were targeted toward the black/asian/Indian 
> students (unless we happen to be one of those ethnicities). Also, 
> it's more subtle and allows her to be more satirical about it 
> without offending people in the real world (it would be too close to 
> home for many).
> 

I just wanted to add that another motivation may be that writing about 
race relations etc. is a tricky subject, in that, even people who are 
against racism, may not agree with your analysis of the facts of a 
certain situation. In HP, JKR is completely in control of her facts, 
so that everyone will get the message.

Eileen

PS Though I have known people who went, "Oh that Leftwing politics," 
when reading about S.P.E.W. Of course, I've heard people accuse her of 
"rightwing politics" in other respects, so I guess it's not true that 
everyone gets the message.