More about the wizarding world and empire...

[pippin_999 <foxmoth@qnet.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 50913

If Rowling had made Dean's last name  Nkrume, it would 
destroy a parallel with the WW, where Muggle-style last names 
may indicate Muggle origin (as in Granger) or not (as in Potter). It 
might also send the message that people *should* have names 
which indicate their ethnicity, which I guess is the idea.  But 
ethnic separatism is a two-edged sword. I'm sure it's very 
important to the Malfoys that no Muggle-born  bears that name.

It could also be that parents who admire Dumbledore's 
anti-separatist attitudes are also less likely to care whether their 
families have names that reflect their ethnic identity. 


Moreover a superficial change in naming conventions  would not 
address the underlying anomaly. If other wizarding cultures were 
as powerful as the British Empire, how was it that they did not 
repel the conquerors?  If Rowling put it that foreign wizarding 
cultures  were disinterested or actively hostile toward   their 
Muggle counterparts, then they would seem morally inferior to 
British wizards like Dumbledore. OTOH, if they try to protect their 
Muggle cousins  and cannot,  they appear impotent.

Rowling could try to write her way around this,  but it would be a 
whopping investment in backstory construction for the sake of 
what is, after all,  a minor character. Perhaps it will be dealt with 
indirectly if  we find out what magical Britain did in defense of its 
homeland during World War II.

For the sake of my own fan fiction, I posited that the wizards had 
abolished war and  were forbidden by the International Wizarding 
Confederation to take part in any Muggle conflicts whatsoever, on 
pain of expulsion and embargo. It's a rather unrealistic solution, 
as befits a fantasy. 

Ebony:
>>"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.) If there was no empire in the history 
of JKR's wizarding world, then why are they being educated in 
Britain? Because Hogwarts is the best school in the world? <<


You're forgetting Karkaroff.  He seems to have been educated at 
Hogwarts, although this is not definite. (Okay, he's white. But so 
is Seamus.) Bill Weasley was invited as an exchange student to 
South America, which implies that South Americans can attend 
Hogwarts. 

 As for Hogwarts being the "best" this is solely Hermione's 
opinion, and has to do with her educational goals. If you want to 
study Dark Arts, Durmstrang is better, according to both Sirius 
and Draco. And it seems that if your aim is to learn the social 
graces, you should be at Beauxbatons.


Pippin