[HPforGrownups] Re: Snape - a werewolf bigot?? Was: Say it isn't so Lupin!!!

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 170099

zgirnius:
In the Shack scene, Snape repeatedly refers to Lupin as "the 
werewolf" instead of using his name, and states at one point, "Don't 
ask me to fathom the way a werewolf's mind works," as though the 
thought processes of werewolves as a class differ from those of other 
humans.

He also calls Lily Evans a Mudblood in the infamous Pensieve scene of 
OotP, and is formerly, and still formally, (IMO) a member of a 
terrorist organization the members of which espouse pureblood 
supremacist beliefs.

Given the personal animus and emotional state of Snape towards Lupin 
in the first instance (the basis for which is eloquently explained by 
Carol elsewhere in this thread), and the generally rotten 
circumstances in which Snape found himself in the second, I would 
hesitate to draw the conclusion from these facts that Snape is a 
bigot. Many do not so hesitate.

I don't believe he is, or was. For me the clincher is his own private 
schoolday nickname of "Half-Blood Prince". 

Magpie:
I find this question kind of fascinating, actually. The thing is, bigotry
(along with love potions, just to reference an unrelated conversation I was
having with somebody recently) is approached in a hundred different ways in
the series. Yes, it's what the DEs stand for, but it's also there on lots
of different levels with all characters, both good, bad and neutral.

In Snape's case, he was a DE, and I don't think that being a Half-blood and
so not being what was claimed to be "the best" by them means that he
couldn't be a bigot. Sometimes people have even gone so far as to claim
that Snape must really have been miserable in Slytherin and must really
hate Slytherin to this day because he's a Half-blood, which almost suggests
that not being Pureblood is a sheild against bigotry . I actually find it
interesting that it's always assumed that his calling himself a Half-Blood
means he's identifying himself as having Muggle blood when he could just as
easily be identifying himself as having Wizard blood. He has no chance of
passing for a Pureblood since he's not one, but by identifying as a
Half-Blood and owning that he could be stating his desire to rise above his
Muggle side. Purebloods may consider themselves better blood-wise, but that
doesn't mean they can't have good relationships with Half-bloods, as we see
with Snape and the Malfoys.

His calling Lily a Mudblood, too, can have a lot of different meanings, but
he is calling her a racial epithet, just as he's choosing to call Lupin a
"werewolf" in the scene where he's angry at him. In the first scene he
seems to me to be publically claiming to have blood supremicity beliefs,
and in the second he's using Lupin's status against him to rub it in,
perhaps for complicated reasons connected to the Prank, which also centered
on Lupin's status. 

Yet at the same time I'd say it was obvious that Snape hates Lupin for
being a Marauder more than a werewolf, and can imagine him having better
relationships with other werewolves. Heck, I don't think he much rubs him
that Lupin is a werewolf post-PoA. Similarly, he may have chosen to call
Lily a Mudblood despite knowing it was a bad thing to do, one that was
maybe unfair. He, like most in canon, are not above sometimes using bigotry
against others.

Now, a lot of the time the thing is that since this is fantasy different
races sometimes *are* different in ways human races aren't. I have a hard
time really making sense of the Hagrid/Grawp relationship as racist or not.
I mean, Hagrid identifies as a Wizard and does not seem to identify as a
giant in the least--I mean, he goes to them with the attitude that Wizards
have that their society is not the way it should be. (The whole Hagrid's
Tale chapter seems like a weird riff on a colonial text about dealing with
savages.) As shown by the way he naturally thinks his brother should be
removed from this society. Grawp himself is weird because he doesn't act
like the giants we hear about who have their own society. Grawp is almost
like a lower form of being who can be tied up and when "tamed" is still
like an animal capable of exhibiting broader emotions but not just talking
to people as a giant should be able to do. He seems to go beyond just
needing a translator.

So what I'd say is that being a bigot is not something you just are or you
aren't. It's very hard for characters to get through the series with no
moments where they've been prejudiced or made judgments based on creatures
who were different. Snape could have embraced the Pureblood beliefs of the
DEs because they fulfilled something in him without it being about his
really "believing" it intellectually. The belief doesn't always have to
come first--he could have become more open to it because it was emotionally
satisfying in some way at the time. We've never seen him exhibit any
particular prejudice against Muggle-borns during the story when we've seen
him--though as I've said before, that in itself doesn't seem to be an
insurmountable problem with Slughorn. Sometimes instances of people being
called names based on what they are is seen as just normal human
interaction and not bigotry at all. I think that really bigotry in the
series is often a default state for most people and something that has to
be consistently looked out for and fought.  

It's that you're never just a bigot or not a bigot, it's that there's
always going to be all these different groups and bigotry is always going
to be there if you want to use it. Snape could be someone who would not
support the Werewolf legislation at all and still call Lupin a werewolf in
the shack. Harry can free Dobby and yet call on Kreacher when he owns him.
It's always a series of choices for how you're going to deal with other
people, and sometimes bigotry is really just easier. 

-m