[HPforGrownups] Re: Diversity in Literature & Media (WAS book differences)

[Pen Robinson]

No: HPFGUIDX 40507

Cindy wrote:

>Maybe some people (I wouldn't go so far as to characterize it
>as "many" people) are irked by Dean Thomas' race being made explicit
>in the U.S. edition.  Some of us view it differently, though.  Some
>of us approach it from the viewpoint that it would be ideal and
>inclusive and realistic for there to have been racial diversity in
>the books (assuming that this was OK with the author) *from the
>start.*  That this diversity was added a little late in the game
>does not make it less valuable or legitimate.  I somehow suspect
>that if JKR thought it important that Dean Thomas be white, he'd be
>white.

Just to point out that there is definitely racial diversity in the books,
in that we have the Patil girls, Cho Chang, Lee Jordan and Angelina
Johnson.   For someone in the UK, the surname Patil, and indeed the
forenames Padma and Parvati, would strongly suggest an Asian (as in Indian
subcontinent) origin, with never a word needing to be said about skin
colour.  Cho Chang suggests an Oriental/Far Eastern origin.  Lee Jordan's
dreadlocks are referred to - and that suggests a West Indian origin.
Angelina Johnson is explicitly mentioned in passing as black, necessary
because the name does not contain any clues.   I see no reason to object to
Dean Thomas being mentioned as black, either - whyever not?  Maybe JKR was
already thinking of him as black, and the rectification of her omission of
his name at the Sorting was an opportunity to mention it.

Thereafter, of course, a person's ethnic origin is never relevant - the
only distinction drawn is between wizard and Muggle blood, so it's possible
to miss the fact that Hogwarts is a multicoloured place (which appears to
be in reasonable proportion with the multicolouredness of, say, my own
children's school).  And of course, if you are in the USA, where surnames
are so vastly more diverse than they are here, the particular clues to
origin which are obvious to UK dwellers may not flag the same way.   I
think, myself, that it's rather nice to see that nobody cares in the
slightest what colour a fellow pupil is.

Pen