[HPforGrownups] "M**blood" and handicap

[Jocelyn Grunow]

No: HPFGUIDX 106374

on 15/7/2004 5:38 PM, delwynmarch at delwynmarch at yahoo.com wrote:

> 
> Jocelyn answered :
>> I think it's more like using 'nigger' or 'kike'.  Not just the fact,
>> but a judgement of inferiority as well.  Muggle is a value-neutral
>> word.  Mudblood is an insult.
> 
> Del replies :
> I don't think it's "just" an insult. Crowds don't react so strongly
> and so massively to insults, even the worst ones. But when Draco uses
> the word, *every single* wizard-born kid reacts strongly and gets on
> Draco's case. That doesn't remind of a crowd's reaction to an insult.
> 
> It reminds of a crowd's reaction to a *taboo*.

Yes that makes more sense.  I was in kind of a hurry when I posted, but by
using those words to compare to mudblood I was trying to convey the
seriousness of the insult - like a taboo.

I mean, it was actually quite difficult to type the insults I was using!
These are words one simply _does not_ say.  If I was standing next to a
friend who was called these words in public I would feel ill that she had
been called that, and react extremely strongly.  Which I think (correct me
if I'm wrong) is what you were saying above.

Jocelyn