The wizarding world and empire

[eloiseherisson at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 50799


Ebony:
>Now, I do understand that there are quite a number of 
>African immigrants who live in Britain.  However, their names are 
>somewhat different from those of West Indian heritage... who *were* 
>descended from slaves.

Absolutely correct.

>It is certain that many Africans, American Natives, Asians, etc. have 
>European names today.  Yet it is Dean and Angelina's *last* names... 
>their family names... that flag to me that there was indeed something 
>like the Middle Passage in the wizarding world.  There had to have 
>been.  Sure, you can rationalize this by saying that both Dean *and* 
>Angelina had ethnically British fathers (in which case they are not 
>simply black, but biracial--and JKR is misnaming them).  There are 
>other explanations you could give.  I say just give the easiest one.

Not sure I completely follow you here. All you need is for them to have a 
male Muggle forbear of West Indian descent, whether that is father, 
grandfather, whatever. I don't think we *know* that either of them is 
pure-blood, do we (although I am more than happy to be corrected on this).

>I also think it's significant that the other nonwhite characters that 
>we see being educated at Hogwarts represent nations that England 
>either conquered completely (Ireland, India, etc.) or had some sort 
>of favored nation status with (China--although Hong Kong was under 
>British control for a long time, yet? Don't know the history 
>completely there.) 

Well, that would be because they are the ones you are most *likely* to find 
living in Britain today. Our history of immigration is somewhat different 
from yours. And yes, it is largely based on our colonial past. We actually 
have residents from a huge range of countries and cultures (in the Inner 
London Health Authority where I used to work, there were 40 different first 
languages spoken), but the West Indies and the Asian subcontinent are areas 
with a long history of immigration into the UK. Some of it by invitation, in 
time of labour shortage.

Our links in recent history have been with Hong Kong, rather than China. We 
handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997.

I'm not terribly comfortable with what you say about Ireland, either. As a 
Brit, I certainly would hesitate to express it like that.

Oh, and it's Britain, not England! The distinction is important.;-)

>If there was no empire in the history of JKR's 
>wizarding world, then why are they being educated in Britain?  

I have always presumed it is simply because the students concerned are from 
families who are *now* resident in Britain, who at some time have emigrated 
to Britain, directly or indirectly because there *was* a *Muggle* British 
Empire. I don't see that this necessarily means that there was *wizarding* 
British Empire, but in so far as Muggle life impinges on Wizard life, then 
the effects of Empire must also have impinged. If there were close links 
between countries in the Muggle world, then those links may also be reflected 
in the WW.

We really don't know how Muggle and Wizarding politics relate, as recent 
discussion has demonstrated.

Having said that, there is also no reason at all to think that wizards might 
not have been caught up in the slave trade. But then, neither is there any 
reason to suppose that magic might not suddenly appear in a totally Muggle 
family of West Indian origin. In fact we should *expect* this.

I'm not saying that your argument is incorrect, just that it's not proven; as 
you said yourself, there are many explanations for Dean and Angelina's 
surnames (one of which is, of course, the suspicion that Dean's ethnicity was 
only decided after the book went to the US publishers) and I'm not convinced 
that any of them need any kind of special pleading.


>Because Hogwarts is the best school in the world?  If so, then *why* 
>is Hogwarts the best, and not another place where magic likely has 
>been practiced far longer (China, Egypt, etc.) than in either Britain 
>or Europe?

Well, where does that idea come from? Just something Hermione says, isn't 
it?.
I imagine that if it *is* the best, then it is the best of the magic schools 
practising in the *European* tradition.
I would suppose that in Egypt, China, etc., there are schools which practise 
magic according to different cultural tradtions. My assumption is that Cho 
comes from a Europeanised background, or that her parents wish her to be 
educated in the European tradition. 

It may well be that there is a Carribbean School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, 
so why wouldn't Dean and Angelina attend that if they are of West-Indian 
descent? All I can say is that many young black people these days would 
describe themselves primarily as British. If a family has lived in the UK for 
several generations, one might expect the children to be educated here, 
rather than shipped off abroad.

>And judging from what we know about Voldemort (and the mentions of 
>Grindelwald), I would say that indeed the wizarding world knows about 
>conquest and empire.  Perhaps not in terms of the racialized or religious 
Other... 
>but magic has its Othered groups as well.

Which, at the risk of sounding horribly cynical, is to be expected as it is 
an unfortunate and enduring aspect of human nature.
Our human instinct to reinforce group stability and cohesion is frequently 
manifested in the demonisation of the Other, whatever that Other might be. In 
JKR's world, we see it clearly in Wizarding attitudes to Elves, Goblins, 
Vampires, Giants - any magical beings who aren't Witches or Wizards - as well 
as towards Muggles.


>Now, perhaps JKR intended for her world to be completely colorblind 
>and free of any traces of imperialism.  Yet as Edward Said so 
>famously stated in Culture and Imperialism, "Without empire, there is 
>no modern European novel as we know it."  Even though she does a 
>noble job "teaching tolerance", as it were, in her novels, there 
>still are vestiges of the pernicious legacy of empire in her work... 
>and this is textual evidence that absolutely cannot be refuted.

It's textual evidence of the legacy of empire in RL, I would submit, but not 
necessarily in the WW. It is evidence of the unpalatable fact that yes, a 
large proportion of our black populace is descended from those whom my 
ancestors enslaved. It also reflects the reality that many black children in 
the UK have European names.

I do think that JKR has sidestepped the issue of racism as we know it. But 
it's clearly addressed by metaphor, in the attitude of the WW to Muggles, of 
the Malfoys and Voldemorts of the WW to "Mudbloods". 

What JKR has done is to make all readers, whatever our ethnic origins, part 
of what is, if not an ethnic minority, at least an ethnic Other to the WW. 

We are all outsiders in the WW. All of us might be called Mudbloods, be 
patronised, be excluded. Voldemort is after people just like us and many in 
the WW, to judge from previous events will stand by and let it happen.

If JKR can make us identify with Muggle-borns, as she can via the experiences 
of Hermione - may this not be the reason for Hermione's parentage? - she has 
potentially a tremendous tool for teaching tolerance by giving all of us, her 
readers, the viewpoint of the victims of prejudice.

~Eloise
Who has suddenly become rather concerned about Hermione's parents.