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

[montavilla47]

No: HPFGUIDX 170108

> Magpie:
> 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. 
>

Montavilla47:
This reminds me of something I heard in a Value Clarification class  when I was nine or ten 
years old.  We were listening to a tape of a professor (he sounded Southern, as I recall), 
talking about bigotry and racism.  He was upfront about acknowledging his own racism 
while still viewing racism as a problem in general.

At one point, he said something like this:  "Yes, I'm a racist.  The question isn't whether or 
not you're a racist.  The question is 'What are you going to do about it?'"

That really stuck with me.  Because there are times in my life when I do judge people by 
their appearance, or their voices, or other stereotypical things.  But I try to stop and 
examine why I do that--and to realize that it's not that I'm a bad person, but simply that 
most people will tend to base judgments on what they already know, and that a lot of 
those assumptions are simply wrong.  

When you think about it, there's a wonderful irony in SWM, as James protests that he 
would never call Lily a Mudblood, but he'd cheerfully bully an oddball, greasy-looking kid 
"just because he exists."

Montavilla47