Snape and purity of blood

[marika_thestral]

No: HPFGUIDX 76294

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Wendy St John" 
<hebrideanblack at e...> wrote:
 
> T.M. Sommers wrote:
> 
> "In the real world, anyone using such an epithet would be 
> instantly and permanently branded a racist.  I see no reason to 
> make a special case of Snape."
> 
> Wendy's reply:
> 
> I *strongly* disagree with this statement. I personally have a hard 
time
> branding anyone "instantly and permanently" as anything. Do you not 
allow
> that people can change their beliefs about things? Especially when 
we
> consider that Snape was only 15. 

Me:
I totally agree with you Wendy. We don't know if Snape really meant 
what he said or not. Like so many on this list have said before, the 
guy was humiliated, and then it's easy to say things you normally 
wouldn't say. It's equally likely he meant it at the time, but not 
anymore. I can also see that he just grabbed the first insult he 
could think of without even thinking about what it really meant or 
weather he agreed to the meaning of it or not. When I was about eight 
years old, it was very common that the boys in my class used the 
word "gay" to insult somebody. I bet half of them didn't know what it 
meant, and that the other half really didn't dislike homosexuals - at 
least not at the time. Some of them probably grew up being homofobic 
while others grew up being homosexual themselves.

Marika