Diversity in Literature & Media (WAS book differences)

[darrin_burnett]

No: HPFGUIDX 40654

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "nplyon" <nplyon at y...> wrote:
> > Apparently, the existence of black people. That's what this boils 
> > down to. 
> > 
> > Do you want to know if a black kid attends Hogwarts? 
> > 
> > If you "knew" already, great, more power to you.
> > 
> > But if you're so enlightened as to know already, then why would 
it 
> > bother you to have it acknowledged?
> > 
> > 
> > Darrin
> 

Nplypon said: 
> I've been hesitant to jump in here because this is becoming a 
pretty 
> heated thread.  However, I think it only fair to defend those who 
are 
> being attacked.
> 
> In the United States, there exists an uneasy feeling that 
everything 
> must be "PC."  This is probably hard for someone who does not live 
in 
> the U.S. to understand.  As you all already know, the U.S. is very 
> culturally diverse but, as some of you may not know, not as well 
> integrated as it should be.  Many white people feel a bit 
> apprehensive as to how exactly they should address people of 
> different ethnic backgrounds.  The terms are forever changing and 
> some people are offended by certain terms while others are not.  
For 
> instance, "black" is a term that some people dislike and that is 
why 
> you usually hear the term "African American" applied.
> 


I write: I don't know if it came off like I do not live in America, 
but I have lived in the U.S. most of my life, excepting four years on 
an Air Force Base on Japan. I've never even been to England and I 
didn't have the first clue what West Ham meant.

And let's be honest here. Say the book was written by an American and 
was set in some scenic part of the U.S. (My vote would be the New 
Mexico desert) What other locations besides Harlem and South Central 
Los Angeles, and maybe southeastern D.C. are going to be dead 
giveaways to a fellow American, let alone a foreign reader, that the 
kid is probably black?

Locations are hardly the most reliable clues to a person's race. So, 
to assume that we should have known from the West Ham reference is a 
bit too much to ask. 

Non-American members: If an American character in a novel is 
described as being from Cicero, Illinois, would you know that this 
character is most likely descended from an old Italian family or is 
black?

And if you didn't know, and the book didn't tell you, would you look 
it up?

Now, to the rest of the post:

> The major problem with what happened in the novels is *not* that 
> there are characters of different ethnic backgrounds and I *firmly* 
> believe that everyone who has posted on this thread thus far does 
not 
> have a problem with it.  I think the problem with the insertion of 
> the word "black" into the U.S. edition of the novels is that to 
some 
> Americans it seems to scream, "Look, this novel really is 
diverse!"  
> The problem is not with the existence of black characters, it is 
with 
> the perceived need on the part of the publisher to blantantly point 
> out that Hogwarts is not just full of white kids.  As many people 
> have pointed out, this is not done with characters like Cho and the 
> Patil twins.  So why with Angelina and Dean?  There is some 
definite 
> merit to the argument that their names are not in and of themselves 
> indicative to a U.S. audience that they are not white.  As many 
other 
> Americans have said, I too missed the clues given by the fact that 
> Dean is a West Ham fan. 

I stand by my assertion that if Dean Thomas had been named DeRon or 
given some other "black-sounding" name than the anti-P.C. crowd would 
have been screaming just as loud. 

Cho was not introduced in the first novel. And I have read that 
England, or at least London, has a significant Pakistani and Indian 
population, so that makes sense.

And so the novel screams "Hogwarts is diverse."

What exactly is WRONG with that?  Again, we're talking about just the 
existence of a black kid at Hogwarts. He's not doing anything 
politically correct at all. No one treats him any better or worse. He 
gets into arguments about sports with white kids, but he's not a 
stereotypical great athlete. 

Dean is just there.

So, his very existence is a problem.

Darrin