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

[wynnleaf]

No: HPFGUIDX 170233

 
> 
> colebiancardi:
> 
> And that to me, means he isn't a bigot.  I've called people names 
(not
> lately, LOL) out of anger and to hurt their feelings.  However, it
> doesn't mean I am a bigot and quite frankly, when I was a teen, 
some
> of the name calling I did, I am ashamed of.  But I grew up; 
learned to
> argue without name-calling.  Hating an individual IS NOT the same 
as
> being a bigot or racist.  
> 
> I see nothing in Adult!Snape that tells me he is a bigot.  
Nothing. 
> Any "werewolf" terms he used for Lupin was out of hatred for one
> person - Lupin.  I have never read him spout out pure-blood 
nonsense
> as an adult - and he does grade fairly, regardless if muggle-born 
or
> not.  He picks on both pure-bloods(Neville & Ron) with the same
> intensity as half-bloods or muggle-borns (Harry & Hermione).  

wynnleaf
For all involved in this discussion ;), I think this is part of what 
concerns me.  I don't think anyone disputes that the phrase "filthy 
mudblood" is a bigoted kind of remark.  As Magpie put it, 
the "rhetoric" is bigoted.  Similarly, there are ways of calling 
someone "werewolf" where the style of rhetoric of the phrasing is 
bigoted in style.

But when you call someone *a* bigot, the implication is not simply 
that the rhetoric of one particular comment was bigoted, but that 
they are in fact *characterized* as a person by bigotry.  

To me, that's a huge leap, most especially with Snape's "mudblood" 
comment.  To take a teenager making a nasty remark in a moment of 
high stress and call that remark bigoted rhetoric is one thing.  To 
then characterize the whole character by that one remark is quite 
another.  

Draco and the others who use the "mudblood" term, show a lot of 
other signs and express a lot of opinions by which one can indeed 
characterize them as "bigoted" toward muggleborns, however Snape 
does not.  The only other thing one can point to is his having 
joined the Death Eaters.

Dumbledore, in HBP, gives Harry several different reasons for why 
people followed Voldemort in the early days:

"They were a motley collection; a mixture of the weak seeking 
protection, the ambitious seeking some shared glory, and the 
thuggish, gravitating towards a leader who could show them more 
refined forms of cruelty. In other words, they were the forerunners 
of the Death Eaters, and indeed some of them became the first Death 
Eaters after leaving Hogwarts."

Notice that nowhere in this list of reasons does Dumbledore 
say "purebloods seeking to get rid of muggleborns."  Yes, that is 
indeed part of what Voldemort does, but from Dumbledore's comments, 
it's rather clear that that's not necessarily why people joined up.

As regards Snape, and why he joined, it's really hard to say, 
because we simply haven't been given the slightest indication of why 
he joined.  

I agree with Magpie that *anyone* who joined Voldemort, regardless 
of the reason, had to at least tacitly accept the anti-muggleborn 
agenda, even if that person didn't actively desire to support it. 

But we don't even know how long Snape was a Death Eater prior to 
turning to Dumbledore.  We only *know* he was a DE from the time of 
hearing the partial prophecy and taking it to LV, to the point of 
realizing the Potters were targeted and going to Dumbledore.  Since 
the Potters knew they were going into hiding *before* Harry's 
christening, it's possible that Snape was only a true follower of 
Voldemort for a few months.  Even in the period between joining and 
going to Dumbledore, we don't know how long he *wanted* to get out 
and just hadn't built up the courage or didn't quite know how to 
leave or who to go to.  So Snape could just as easily have joined 
Voldemort for reasons having little to nothing to do with muggleborn 
prejudices (although, granted at least tacitly accepting Voldemorts 
agenda there), and then relatively quickly seen the light and 
decided to get out of it.

Since JKR has been very careful to *not* reveal Snape's motivations 
in joining Voldemort, and has made theories of muggleborn prejudice 
problematic with her revelation that Snape's father was a muggle, I 
don't think we can just assume that Snape joined Voldemort with a 
bigoted agenda, and certainly not that he is a bigot during the 
times of the books.

Another thing that concerns me is the tendency to lump all bigotry 
together.  I get the impression that some posters assume that if 
Snape is bigoted in any one area, he's just bigoted in general, 
toward anything and everything that one could possibly be bigoted 
toward.

As regards Snape's attitude toward werewolves, I question Snape's 
calling Lupin "werewolf," as being a bigoted, or even prejudiced 
remark.  "Werewolf" is not a bad word. It is what Lupin calls 
himself.  I do agree that when Snape uses it, it's calling Lupin by 
what he is, as opposed to *who* he is.  But that is often done in 
many contexts.  If, for instance, one of the good guys ran across a 
death eater doing something awful and called out "stop, you Death 
Eater!" would anyone consider it bigoted to call the person "death 
eater" as opposed to their name?  Certainly not.  Why?  Well, they 
*are* a death eater.  Well, Lupin is a werewolf.  But the use of 
the "death eater" term would be derogatory in nature at the time, 
right?  So it's bigoted right?  No, because death eaters really 
*are* bad.  But the problem here is that Snape really does consider 
werewolves dangerous, deadly, and Lupin in particularly so.  And in 
fact, werewolves in the series are for the most part dangerous, 
deadly, etc. when at that particular time of the month -- that 
particular time of the month when Snape, in the Shrieking Shack, 
calls Lupin "werewolf."  

As I've said before, prejudice is preconceived opinions, not based 
on fact or real experience.  Snape is not prejudiced toward Lupin.  
He dislikes and distrusts him based on actual knowledge.

wynnleaf