Blood & predjudice...or what makes for strange bedfellows? (Long....)

[sugaranddixie1]

No: HPFGUIDX 150336

Starting with LV- the head of the organization.  Acceptable to his 
followers because he renounced his father? Seems ironic to think of 
Lucius Malfoy in a organization headed by a half-muggle.  It presents 
a problem for me because being from the southern U.S., the closest 
analogy I conjure up is a man who's half-black heading the Klu Klux 
Klan.  In other words, denial of parentage wouldn't solve the blood 
problem for the other members of the organization- the predjudice 
would still exist & saying "I renounce my Dad" doesn't change the 
facts...  (I seem to remember reading somewhere that Hitler had some 
Jewish blood in him so perhaps there's some sort of historical 
precedent for the storyline there.)

Now on to Snape- also of mixed parentage.  Accepted as a Death-eater 
& highly-thought of/friends with the Malfoys.  Again, why would 
Lucius Malfoy deign to fraternize with a non-pureblood when it seems 
to be such a huge issue for him?  Is he not aware of Snape's 
lineage?  Is Draco not aware of it?   It seems like it would be the 
first thing the Malfoy family would want to ascertain before letting 
someone into their circle....  When it comes to LV and Snape that 
doesn't pose as much of a problem to me...their mixed-parentage would 
be a grounds on which they could really relate.  I do think Snape had 
mixed feelings ( at least during his teen years) about his own 
lineage-  he never defaced the words "..Half-Blood Prince..." in the 
textbook- left them there for posterity.  Yet he called Lily 
a "..Mudblood..." when she came to his aid in OOP.

So my point is this- How can the Malfoys profess to be so obsessed 
with people's bloodlines & still do the things they do?  The ultimate 
irony? The irrationality of prejudice? So few pure-bloods left that 
they'd be sitting home alone if they didn't bend the rules a bit?   
Any thoughts?
   
E.T.