The "mudblood" thing

[Aesha Williams]

No: HPFGUIDX 41804

In response to the following by Annechan:

> A point about the word "mudblood"... Is there a polite equivalent to
> that word? I mean, "nigger" is not a really polite word, and you can't
> use it to say "my friend is a nigger, we're going to Africa next week in
> order to visit his other friends-niggers."

    Well, I'm not sure where you're coming from- the "n" word isn't a nice
or polite word in any context, to the majority of people. I am an
African-American and have never and would never speak it, or allow anyone to
speak it around me or call me that- no matter the color of their skin. So if
you were really friends with someone, you wouldn't say "my friend is a ____,
we're visiting his other friends, _____." That would be like saying, " Well,
my friend is from Mexico and we're going to visit his other friends, who are
Mexican". What is the point of pointing out that? Can you really see Harry
or Ron saying, "Well, yeah, we're going to visit Hermoine the mudblood, and
meet some of her other friends who are/might be mudbloods". I don't think
it's really relevant whether there is a polite term for "mudblood" or not
(though it would be muggle-born, which I think they use in almost every
book), because why bother to differentiate people like that? To make sure
they know they're an outsider and put them in their place? Which is all that
words like "mudblood" do, and which is why people like Draco Malfoy use
them. So that they can flaunt their so-called superiority.
    With that, I'll see you all in a week.

Aesha