Bigotry or NOT? / ACID POPS and Teenager Draco - Motivation? LONG

[zgirnius]

No: HPFGUIDX 157589

> Alla:
> 
> Okay, you can always explain things to me and make me hear the 
> argument even which I strongly disagree with, so even though I was 
> going to stay out of this thread, I changed my mind.
> 
> SO, I am confessing to being just as baffled as Mike is as 
> to "bigotry" on Hagrid's behalf. Of course I won't dispute that 
> Hagrid was using the *Squib* as derogatory name, but there is such 
a 
> big road from derogatory to bigotry and even prejudice IMO.
> 
> I mean to me there is not a slightest sign in canon that *squibs* 
is 
> a slur. The fact that Arabella calls herself a Squib speaks volumes 
> to me. Are you saying that she is being prejudicial towards herself?
> 
> I mean, that is what she **is**, no?
> 
> And precisely because the implications of the **Squib** and 
> **Mudblood** are so different to me, I don't buy the analogy 
between 
> what Malfoy does to Hermione and what Hagrid does to Filch either.
> 
> I mean, sure they are both trying to put down the other person, but 
> Malfoy does it with the **racial** slur, and Hagrid does it with 
> something which in context I would also analogise to as an 
**idiot**.

zgirnius:
I, too, had been staying out of this.

But I think the issue is quite simple. If Hagrid had called Filch a 
jerk, or a git, or a berk, or any other generic pejorative word, we 
would not be having this discussion. But the noun he selected 
identifies Filch as having a particular birth characteristic, over 
which he has no more control than a Muggle has over their skin color, 
ethnicity, or physical disability. One which has no relevance to the 
discussion, and further, one which identifies him as a member of a 
disadvantaged minority in the context of the society in which he and 
Hagrid live. That is why it is worthy of some note (though not, 
perhaps, quite the lengthy discussion it has gotten...<g>). In 
particular, while I cannot speak for Magpie, Ceridwen, or others who 
have taken this position, personally I think Hagrid's use of the word 
may tell us less about him, amnd more about the culture in which he 
lives. Hi is behaving in a *typcial*, *normal* manner.