[HPforGrownups] Pureblood attitudes and the word "racism"

[manawydan]

No: HPFGUIDX 106680

Carol asked:
>But we do see what might better be termed "prejudice" among people who
>are all of the same race (Harry and Draco, Lily and Snape, Diary!Tom
>and his petrified or murdered victims, the real Tom and his own
>family). How can it possibly be racism if they're all of the same
>race, including the Muggles as well as the Muggleborns? And if it
>isn't based on race, what, exactly, is it based on?

It seems, first of all, to be based on "lineage". If you've got a tapestry,
or some equivalent measure of the antiquity of your "pure" magical ancestry,
it appears to be prestigious. Why?

Certainly not because it's an indication of your magical ability: someone
with no lineage can be far more powerful as a wizard than others of pure
lineage.

Nor is there any evidence that lineage is an avenue to power. I think that
if there had been any requirement for the Minister, members of the
Wizenagemot, or any of the other institutions, to be of ancient lineage,
then it would have been mentioned by now (and perhaps been a more solid
target for Hermione's quest for justice than the problematic one of house
elves...)

I wonder, instead, whether the prestige is bound up with the process by
which the WW seperated itself from the Muggle world. I've suggested
elsewhere that self-awareness by wizarding folk of their seperate nature
from Muggles was a result of urbanisation and the coming together of wizards
for the first time, gradually extending, under the whip of Muggle
persecution, to embrace more and more wizards until, finally, the Statute of
Secrecy formalised what had been a reality for most wizards for a long time.

At _that_ time, "ancient lineage" could well have been far more important:
possibly it _was_ then the case that government was reserved for "pureblood"
wizards (just as it was to the aristocracy in our own world).

If you double the length of a generation to allow for the greater wizarding
lifespan, then that's not really so long ago (5 generations or so). A wizard
generation could be even longer than that.

But nowadays ancient lineage is no longer a gateway to power: instead of an
aristocracy, the WW is now a bureaucracy. Entry is on wizarding ability and
merit (and probably a large proportion of the Hogwarts graduates go on into
the MoM). Apart from their feelings of superiority (and presumably the kind
of inherited wealth that the Malfoys and the Blacks appear to have), what
else do the wizarding aristocracy have? Just resentment and prejudice
against the way things are, turning easily to prejudice against wizards
without "lineage".

I have no thoughts on whether the transition from aristocracy to bureaucracy
was an event or a process, and don't know if it's ever been discussed here.
Might be an interesting aside on the history of the WW. If Prof. Binns is
out there anywhere, I'd welcome his thoughts!

Cheers

Ffred

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