Snape and purity of blood

[Echa Schneider]

No: HPFGUIDX 71588


On Saturday, July 19, 2003, at 02:02 AM, M.Clifford wrote:

>>
>> Snape, while a despicable human being, has never, to my
> recollection, shown any sign of being a racist. Purity of blood, in
> fact, seems rather unimportant to him - look at his treatment of
> Neville.
> If anyone can provide any examples of Snape implying that he believes
> purebloods are superior, I would be interested to see it. It's
> possible that I overlooked it.
>>
>> Echa
>
> Indeed Edna,
> Apart from the *perhaps* 'fleeting' indiscretion against Lily in the
> pensieve when Snape was a young man, there has been no direct
> implication of prejudice against blood by Snape in the books, as I
> recall it.

I ought to have qualified my statement about being prejudiced.

What I mean is, has he, as an adult, shown any signs of looking down on 
muggle borns or half-bloods, or favoring purebloods at all.

> I read into it that he must maintain a professionalism a a teacher,
> as well. So I can not say for sure that he has no prejudice existing
> in him as an adult.

We have, however, seen several instances of him behaving in a 
strikingly unprofessional manner towards his students. (Just ask 
Darrin). Hermione and the tooth incident, threatening to poison 
Neville's toad, breaking Harry's container of potion, just to name a 
few. He is undeniably harsh with many students, and I would go as far 
as to say sadistically cruel, so it is curious to me than blood has 
never, to my recollection, come up as an issue with him.

I bring this up because if his views of muggleborns have changed 
significantly since his youth, I find that interesting. It makes me 
wonder what would have caused him to change his mind after being so 
vehemently anti-muggle born as a teenager.

Similarly, if he is still a racist purist, yet fights against 
Voldemort, that is also interesting. I'd like to know some other 
people's views on the subject.

Echa