Scapegoating Slytherin

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 144341

> Pippin:
>It's all about power, no matter where it comes from.

Jen: In the interest of understanding the story better, I did some 
searching in interviews about power and racism. I found several 
things, two which particularly support your view, Pippin:

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"So we talk about power, which seems to be at the basis of the 
tales: magic power, the power of parents over kids, the struggle 
between the power of good and the power of evil -- ''yes,'' 
{Rowling} says excitedly, ''abuse of power, why people would seek 
power." Vancouver Sun, 2000.

"I think kids need a bit of escapism, but I don't think Harry Potter 
is divorced from reality." I suggest that this essentially is a book 
about power and this delights her. "Yes. Absolutely. Kids are so 
powerless, however happy they are." The Herald, 1997

Here are some thoughts on racism in the series:

"JKR: Well obviously in the wizard world passes for racism, and 
that's deeply entrenched in the whole plot, there's this issue going 
on about the bad side really advocating a kind of genocide, to 
exterminate what they see as these half-blood people. So that was 
obviously very conscious, but the other messages do grow 
organically."

Fry: "It is another one of the most horrible and brilliant 
inventions of the books is this snobbery this idea of purebloods and 
mudbloods and this idea of mingling, mixed breeding which is a 
reflection of some of the things like racism and intolerance that we 
have in our world. Is that deliberate or did it come to you in a 
flash again or did it just suddenly...."

JK Rowling: "That was deliberate it was always there from the 
beginning as you saw with Draco – even from first book with Draco 
Harry discovers him first being rude about Muggles." 2003 Royal 
Albert Hall

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Jen: So I think you make a good point about power Pippin, although I 
still see racism as more than a vehicle for the series. I couldn't 
find the quote where JKR talks about magic as the vehicle, but she 
said something to that effect. Now, at the risk of writing too long 
of a post, I did want to add points to a couple Pippin's examples.

Pippin: 
> 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. 

Jen: I'm not certain Petunia makes the distinction between who Harry 
is and what he's capable of doing. She calls Lily a 'freak' and 
Harry 'just as abnormal' as his parents. Those descriptions struck 
me as Petunia hating him for who he was born, with his ability to do 
magic an expression of his abnormality.

Pippin:
> 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. 

Jen: Voldemort did indeed change his agenda over time, but once 
again it's difficult for me to separate out where he started from 
who he became. His first work at Hogwarts was to open the COS, erase 
his Muggle heritage by changing his name/murdering his kin, and 
identifying solely with being Heir of Slytherin. He then started 
amassing followers who presumably held similar interests in pure-
blood superiority and dark magic. Dumbledore did not say all his 
cronies, 'the forerunners of the DE's' were from Slytherin although 
given who Voldemort was, I think they were. He believed Slytherin 
house was superior since he was the heir, plus his need to dominate 
and control would suggest having followers he could keep a close 
watch on.

So did Voldemort taint his own house and Harry is seeing the results 
or was LV indeed perpetuating Slytherin's 'noble work'? I've 
wondered if Slughorn is not a better example of Slytherin house 
before the time of Voldemort.

Pippin:
> 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. 

Jen: Here's the entire quote: "I always knew Slytherin was a twisted 
old looney...but I never knew he started all this pure-blood stuff. 
I wouldn't be in his house if you paid me." (chap. 9, p. 152 
Scholastic)

Is this an example of reverse discrimination going on toward 
Slytherin house or has Ron heard other things about Slytherin that 
make it possible for him to easily believe he started the pure-blood 
discrimination?

Pippin:
> 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.

Jen: There was a bit more to this, though. Harry was found at the 
scene of Mrs. Norris' petrification and has his unusual past. First 
a few people start the rumour he was Heir of Slytherin, then when he 
speaks Parseltoungue, a gift Slytherin was noted to have, most 
people start to believe it. It IS interesting people think the Heir 
of Slytherin would be in Gryffindor.

Pippin:
> 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?

Jen: I hope this will prove true, as the split happened after the 
Sorting Hat was made. I find it a little difficult to believe only 
Slytherin and Voldemort succumbed to the lure of power twinned with 
blood discrimination over all the centuries. 

Pippin:
> 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.

Jen: Nor would I. Except wouldn't that still make Ravenclaw, 
Gryffindor and Hufflepuff a bit *more* progressive to actually let 
them in their houses <g>?

Pippin:
>-- unless perhaps they were cheeky enough to ask to be let in. I
> keep wondering about Myrtle.

Jen: I'm waiting to hear Myrtle was in Slytherin as well, for a 
different reason--I think it would be nifty if Harry discovers 
cheeky Myrtle, his own mom and *himself* would have 'all done well 
in Slytherin' and that's not a bad thing. Harry has definitely been 
prejudiced against Slytherin house and I think the combination of 
his own mom, and making peace with the HBP might help him see that.

Jen, probably writing on a thread everyone is done with. :)