JKR's lesson on prejudice (was:Slytherins come back)

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 180479

> >>Betsy Hp:
> > The reason this argument leaves me completely cold is that
> > I've long felt more affinity for Slytherin than Gryffindor.
> > No one had to *tell* me Harry was prejudiced. I picked that
> > up the moment he refused to shake Draco's hand. Actually,
> > from the moment Hagrid whispered an obvious lie into Harry's
> > ear.

> >>revaunchanistx:
> What? Did you miss Harry and Draco's meeting in Madam Malkin's
> where Draco oozed prejudice and privilege out of every pore,
> saying half-bloods and mud bloods shouldn't be allowed in and
> my father is trying to get me on the house team and insulted
> Hagrid, Harry's first true friend.
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
Oh, that's the scene where I first fell in *love* with Draco.  Tiny 
little thing doing his best to make a new friend and saying *all* the 
wrong things.  Hilarious *and* poignant.  (And I must point out, 
Draco said his father thought he *should* be on the quidditch team.  
Not that he'd get him on there.  Minor point, but a sore-ish one. *g*)

> >>Betsy Hp:
> > That Slytherins are treated as the scapegoats and sin-eaters
> > of the WW had been apparent to me the moment Dumbledore pulled
> > that tacky powerplay at the end of PS/SS.
> > <snip>

> >>revaunchanistx:
> At what point are the Slytherins ever a scapegoat or sin-eater,
> at the end of PS/SS last minute points had to be rewarded, it
> would have been more wrong to ignore what had happened and
> not reward points to Gryffindor.
> <snip>

> >>Snape's Witch:
> <snip>
> What I found disturbing about that scene in PS/SS was the Slytherin
> flags on display indicating they had definitely won the house cup   
> and *then* DD awards the points, claps his hands, "We need a change 
> of decoration" and the pennants change to Gryffindor. Sounds like
> deliberate humilation to me.

> >>Geoff:
> I have to admit that that has always bothered me. To announce the
> points and then say "Ah but here's a few more I hadn't included..."
> <snip>
> I feel I must take a diametrically opposite view to revaunchanistx 
> and say that it seemed to show extreme favouritism of Gryffindor    
> just to let them win. Having taught eleven year olds, I can        
> visualise how that would go down with them... and it did nothing to 
> improve inter-house relationships in the following years.

Betsy Hp:
Yes, that's exactly how I saw it as well.

> >>revaunchanistx:
> <snip>
> If you sympathized with Slytherins anyway and saw them
> as victims what sort of turn-around were you expecting?
> <snip>

Betsy Hp:
I expected Harry to have to deal with Slytherin as a group of people 
rather than an overarching philosophy.  I won't say that the codified 
prejudice of Slytherin was correct; on the contrary, it was something 
that obviously needed fixing.  But I also thought constantly 
attacking Slytherin, labeling them as the source of all that was bad 
in the WW would leave the problem unresolved and buried.  Which, it 
did, IMO.

> >>revaunchanistx:
> <snip>
> The only way the status quo would change on a massive scale like you
> want it to is through a regime like Voldemort wanted to
> instill, where he would have employed tactics that worked
> in Cambodia, Stalin's Russia, and Red China and yes even
> Nazi Germany.
> <snip.

Betsy Hp:
And I would point to the status quo that changed in the United States 
at the turn and midpoint of the last century, and the changes that 
occurred in Germany and Japan at the end of WWII.  It's possible. 
It's just too bad Harry (and JKR) didn't want to bother.

Betsy Hp