"M**blood" and handicap (was Re: James the Berk?)

[huntergreen_3]

No: HPFGUIDX 106267

Del wrote:
>>Well, technically there are kind of right. What I mind though, is 
that they seem to consider that because they are handicapped, the 
Muggles can't bring any worthwhile contribution to the world. They 
completely dismiss all of the Muggles' accomplishments as just a way 
to cope with their handicap. [snip]
Seen in that light, it's more easily understandable why some
pure-bloods are against the Muggle-borns : because they bring a
*disability* into the WW. Both their parents are disabled,
handicapped, and it's just a lucky chance that they are not too. But
who knows what it's going to do in the future ? Maybe their kids or
grandkids will be disabled too ?<<

HunterGreen:
I've always thought that the reason certain wizards are against 
having muggle-borns in the school is that they're accepting kids who 
know nothing about magic and every summer are leaving the magical 
word, and forever have ties with non-magical people. On the surface 
its not that big of deal, until you look closely at the situation. 

Hermione for example, as its been discussed in a recent thread, is 
drifting apart from her parents. It gets to the point where the child 
and the parent are living such different lives, that the child has to 
cut their parents out (to some degree), or cut the magical world out 
during the summer and Christmas holidays. She started out going back 
and forth between the things that mattered to her during the 
schoolyear (such as her friends, and studies, and the 'adventures' 
that were going on each year), and going home during the summer, but 
now she's hardly around her parents at all. 

Now why would this matter to the pure-blood-fanaticals? Well, not 
only is Hermione having to fight between her loyalty to her parents 
and the WW, but when she first started school if she hadn't been 
Hermione and studied very hard, the school would have more teaching 
for her than the natural born wizard children. Sort of like remedial 
children in regular school, and the whole class having to go slow to 
teach two or three kids. Of course in the present of the school, this 
doesn't make much difference, but when you think of the sense of when 
the school was just starting, imagine the annoyance of Slytherin when 
he thought of having to pause to explain what basic magic things are.

Not only that, but there's a second half of it, meaning their 
constant ties to the muggle world. Meaning they are more likely to 
marry a muggle, and more likely to be involved in muggle customs 
(rather embarassing for the well-to-do wizards who detest muggles), 
and more likely to spend time with muggles. And then if they have 
kids, it gets even more complicated, Harry is a good example of this. 
Had Lily been a pure or mixed blood, when she died and Harry went to 
her family they would have been wizards. Harry, even though he's far 
from a muggle-born, represents the problem that can arise from muggle-
borns. He knows *nothing* about the WW when he's told he's a wizard, 
and goes to school relatively clueless, causing Ron and Hermione to 
have to answer questions for him many in the books.

Anyway, all that rambling aside, I think that if the muggle-borns 
agreed to both cut off all ties to the muggle world, and study harder 
before the beginning of their first year so they know the *basics* of 
the WW, then many of the complaints about them would be gone. Of 
course, expecting those things of them is not really fair or 
practical, so that's why people like Slytherin didn't want to teach 
them at all.
Now hiding a giant snake in a secret chamber to be released and kill 
all the muggle-borns, THAT'S a different problem altogether.

Del:
>>In the light of that analogy, I think the problem with the word
"Mudblood" is not so much that it is an insult, but that it is
acknowledging a truth that nobody else wants to hear.<<

HunterGreen:
Yes, I think you have a point there. Everyone is expected to quietly 
ignore the fact that muggleborns, are indeed muggleborns. Like I said 
in another post, I think Snape used the term in the pensieve scene 
not like the way that Malfoy uses it with Hermione (as just an 
insult, just for the sake of insulting her), but because he was 
specifically angry and insulted and frustrated with her. He was 
embarassed. If you look at her reaction, I think she was in some 
understanding of that, which is what she reacted to. She wasn't mad 
that he used a "racial slur" against her, but because of his clear 
lack of gratitude for her standing up for him. 

Anyway, this post is long enough. BTW Del, great post.