Hermione's rude comment

[Wanda Sherratt]

No: HPFGUIDX 74529

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Lisa G <happybluebirdie at y...> 
wrote:
> Well, let me phrase my thought in another way. You're a thirteen
> year old girl. Two girls that you DO NOT like by any stretch of
> the imagination are dreamily talking about a guy they think is
> soooooo cute.... sigh. They glance your way and say, with a
> sniff, "So, what do you think of him?" You reply, almost lazily,
> "Oh, I don't know. I don't think he's so great." "What do you
> MEAN?? He's the dreamiest!" they squeal at you. You roll your
> eyes, and make some sort of mildly insulting comment about the
> object of their affection (Well, he runs like a girl), smirk to
> yourself over the way their little jaws drop indignantly, and
> get on with your life.

Well, I don't know.  I'd say if the boy in question were Chinese-
American, and I made some remark about slanty eyes, I don't think it 
would make much difference how loudly I protested that I just didn't 
like the girls.  I'd be in pretty deep trouble.  My difficulty is 
not with how offensive the remark is, nor even solely with the fact 
that Hermione is the one saying it.  It's that Rowling has written 5 
books dealing with the theme of racial prejudice and how bad it is. 
I've followed this theme all through the books, and it's been 
impressed upon me that this is IMPORTANT, even though I've found 
Rowling's treatment of it to be a bit unimaginative and occasionally 
tiresome.  So now I find it rather disorienting that Hermione just 
casually tosses off what in the wizarding world is basically a 
racial insult, and nothing comes of it. Nobody speaks to her, nobody 
comments on it, nobody even raises an eyebrow or looks troubled or 
surprised.  I feel like Rowling is ditching one of her central 
themes just to provide a little comic relief, and I don't think that 
is allowed.  She is the one in control of her material, and she 
could have selected any theme she wanted to build her story around.  
She picked this one, and I can't figure out where this inconsistency 
has suddenly come from.  If in the next book, Hermione confronts 
this flaw in herself and learns from it, then it will turn out to 
have been an intelligent move; but I'm troubled by the way the 
remark just seems to drop into a black hole and causes no reaction 
at all. 

Wanda