Scapegoating Slytherin (was:Punishing Draco )

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 144112

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Jen Reese" <stevejjen at e...> wrote:
>
> Jen: I've been thinking about this and decided no, I don't think JKR 
> is saying all discrimination is equal in Potterverse. Besides hanging 
> several major plot points on this issue, as well as providing 
> motivation for many of the characters, she chose to tell a story which 
> involves deeply-ingrained, centuries-old discrimination based on blood 
> purity, and the horrors which have resulted from that view. Not only 
> that, but she created many characters whose lives have been destroyed 
> by discrimination based on race, rather than any other form of 
> elitism. 
> 

Pippin:
Wow, I didn't get that at all! Our main character is Harry, and he suffers
from discrimination based on talent, not race--Petunia hates him because
he's magical, not because he has tainted blood. Harry himself makes the
point that he'd be perfectly welcome to join the Death Eaters if they weren't
trying to do him in. Voldemort says himself, at the age of sixteen, that
killing Muggles and Mudbloods doesn't matter to him anymore, what matters
is finding out why Harry had the power to vanquish the greatest
wizard in the world. It's all about power, no matter where it comes from.


There *is* a long-standing belief in the wizarding world that purity of blood 
is a good thing, but the interesting thing is that it's not only not confined to 
Slytherin House, but in the mind of the average wizard on the street, it's not 
even associated with it. Ron says in CoS that he had no idea all this pureblood 
stuff started with Slytherin.  That would argue that he's met plenty of 
pureblood fanatics who weren't Slytherins. And while Hermione leaps at
once to the conclusion that Draco must be the Heir of Slytherin, most of
the school is perfectly willing to believe that it's Harry. No reason in their
minds that a Gryffindor can't be a racist fanatical murderer, then.

The Sorting Hat never says that  it was wise or good to want Muggleborns
banished from the school, or indeed to wish to teach only purebloods. And 
Slytherin House must represent those of Slytherin's followers and pupils who were 
happier with his old philosophy than his new one, who *didn't* 
follow Slytherin when he left the school, right?

Slughorn says he used to tell Lily that she should have been in his House,
so it appears that Slytherin itself is less discriminatory than a lot of wizarding
institutions with supposedly Slytherin attitudes. Tom tells Slughorn he'd
be held back by his background at the Ministry--well, it obviously wasn't
holding him back in Slytherin House. 

I wouldn't be surprised to learn that institutional racism in the WW predates
Slytherin, and that for his time he was initially a progressive for founding 
a school to which Muggleborns could be admitted, even if he preferred not
to have them in his House -- unless perhaps they were cheeky enough to
ask to be let in. I keep wondering about Myrtle.

Pippin