It's "blood" that counts (Was: wizard geneology - Genius or Baloney?)

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 148298


Potioncat:
Blood doesn't really mean the red stuff in our veins. It means the 
make-up of who we are. It's the older version of genetics. Blood is 
who our family is. It's Smith blood or Jones blood. That has meaning 
if you think there is a "Smith-ness" that is passed to the children. 
Smiths are brave and strong and loyal....or whatever virtues the 
Smith family values. Smiths might also have a weakness for drink or a 
bit of laziness or whatever vices they've seen in themselves; or 
sometimes that others have seen in them. (fill in name of your choice 
for Smith.)

Blood is also where we came from. England or Ireland or China. The 
blood of warriors, the blood of builders...or whatever virtues we see 
in our culture. It's not popular to think that way now.

The dark side is that one can then decide that some other type of 
blood is bad. It can be Jones blood or (fill in name of different 
culture)blood.


> snip
> Carol responds:
> So are you arguing that his prejudice is based on the absence of 
magic
> rather than the absence of magical blood, and that somehow makes it
> better than Mrs. Black's, if only because he doesn't scream his
> insults as soon as the Squib or Muggle enters his presence?

Potioncat:
I think the prejudice, whether it seems based on blood or magic, is 
the difference between us and them. Us and them can change depending 
on who is in the room.

In Hagrid's case it seems to be magic-folk and some giants, and a few 
non-wizard, magical types. Within the WW, he doesn't care for 
Slytherins, even though he defends Snape quite a bit.

DD is the only one I can think of who hasn't shown prejudice. Ron 
showned to toward giants and werewolves. McGonagall toward Muggles. 
Hermione toward Centaurs. (In a different way than Umbridge has.)






 Carol:
 That's hypocrisy at best.

Potioncat:
And I'd bet most of us have some. (Well, not me of course.)
The difference between McGonagall and Mrs. Black is that McG doesn't 
judge someone by what their parents are. She treats Hermione as well 
as she does any other student. She does harbor some ill will toward 
Muggles in general.(I know, you asked about Hagrid vrs Mrs. Black, 
but this one is clearer.)

Besides, although Hagrid used magic on a Muggle and he really 
shouldn't have, he didn't do it because the person was a Muggle, but 
because of the way Harry was being treated.


I'm not at all justifying any of this. I think JKR has done a very 
good job of showing different degrees of prejudice with a dose of 
human nature thrown in. 
 
> Carol, hoping that Potioncat is right about Sirius and Severus being
> at least third cousins but not sure how it would fit into the plot 
of
> Book 7

Potioncat:
Oh, it probably won't. As JKR has drawn the chart for the charity, 
the female/nonBlack line isn't followed. So it would be easy enough 
for Eileen to not appear even if she is a grand or great-grandaughter 
of Phineas. There's a slightly different chart over at the Lexicon, 
but I swear, it doesn't seem to make much sense with what I thought 
we knew. (the chart, not the Lexicon)

I've decided that Severus and Sirius aren't closely related afterall, 
but Phineas could still be Snape's ancestor.