Prejudice against Muggleborns (was:Re: Hermione's Hypocrisy?(long)

[a_svirn]

No: HPFGUIDX 129268


> >a_svirn:
> >Well, there is no denying that the bad guys of the Potterverse 
> don't like Muggle-borns. However, there are the good guys who do. 
> And they are greater in number.
> <snip>
> >...[Hermione's] origins didn't upset her social life. Neither are 
> her career choices affected. Even now she is a prefect and is 
tipped 
> to be a headgirl.  Formally she can choose whatever career path 
she 
> fancies.<
> <snip>
> 
> Betsy:
> Unless she wants to work at the Ministry.  Or teach at Hogwarts.  
> (Name one known Muggleborn working at either place.)  With the 
views 
> commonly held in the WW, even if Hermione got a job in the bottom 
> echelon of the Ministry, she couldn't hope to rise far.  And the 
> governing board would probably question the wisdom of Dumbledore 
> hiring on a Muggleborn (so ignorant of *our* ways) where she might 
> have undue influence on impressionable children.  (Dumbledore had 
to 
> sneak the werewolf and the half-breed past the board.)

a_svirn:

We don't know enough to judge about that. What do we know about 
ancestry of Hogwarts faculty? Only that Trelawney was a 
granddaughter of the great Seer, and therefore probably, although 
not necessarily pureblood; that Remus on top of being werewolf is 
also a half-blood and that Flitwick has a touch of goblin in him. 
How do you now that McGonagall, say, is not a Muggle-born?   

I agree that there are probably certain limitations for muggle-
borns' progress in the ministry. But that's not because of 
prejudices per ce. It's just that in the world when everybody is 
related to everybody Muggle-borns simply lack the connections 
requisite for success. We've seen how the network of small and not 
so small favours is working. Choosing between the promoting their, 
say, second cousin once removed and an upstart nobody eight out of 
ten heads of the departments would choose a cousin. Especially since 
they know that their own children start their careers at, say, St. 
Mungo and would expect their healer relatives to watch out for them. 
I am not saying that nepotism is a good thing, just that it's not 
the same thing as prejudice. 

Betsy:
> 
> As to the "good-guys", remember how quickly Molly fell for Rita 
> Skeeter's articles?  And this right after Skeeter had told lies 
> about Molly's own husband.  

a_svirn:

Do you think that all the WW fell for Rita's fiction about Harry 
because he's a half-blood?

Betsy:
I also question the "greater in number" 
> claim.  There were plenty of wizards and witches at the World Cup 
> who were running, not to stop the Death Eaters torturing the 
Muggle 
> family, but to join in the "fun".  

a_svirn:

I assume you are referring to the following: "More wizards were 
joining the marching group, laughing and pointing up at the floating 
bodies.  Tents crumpled and fell as the marching crowd swelled.  
Once or twice Harry saw one of the marchers blast a tent out of his 
way with his wand".  I read it differently. I think that more 
*masked* wizards, that is more DE were joining to the group. Most of 
the present wizarding population was genuinely horrified, and anyway 
it would be stupid to join unmasked in the full view of Ministry 
officials. 


a_svirn