Slytherins are (*not* ) bad (was:Re: Severus as friend)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 183342

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "sistermagpie"
<sistermagpie at ...> wrote: 
> because for the most part, all the Slytherins are at worst actively 
> evil and at best have glaringly obvious flaws that make them jerks
but  maybe learned not to be quite so actively bigoted and evil.
> 

Pippin:
And how does that make them different from the other characters? Aside
from the cameos,  all the characters are jerks on occasion. They
bully, they make bigoted remarks, and they let themselves be
manipulated by Voldemort. 

Alla:
But there is no way person can work upon changing their origins, their
blood. Therefore to me Salasar's prejudging was absolutely the worst,
period. He prejudged on something person can never ever change IMO.

Pippin:
But it's also something that doesn't exist. I mean, we are all agreed
that there's absolutely no such thing as pure blood, right? The Hat
can't look inside your head and tell whether you have pure blood,
because there ain't no such animal.  It can only tell whether you
think your blood is pure. 

Once no one believes that having magical parents makes your blood
purer, the hat will no longer be able to sort those people into
Slytherin, because they won't exist. There could still be Slytherins,
but they'd be chosen for  other qualities: ambition, cunning, a
certain disregard for rules... The hat will go on singing its songs,
but no one will think that Slytherins go in for that stuff nowadays.

Betsy Hp:
But... West Point doesn't have a codified subset of students who
associate themselves with the Confederacy, despite the powerful
graduates associated with that side of the Civil War. Plus, since
this all happened *well* within a generation, I have a hard time
believing the traditions were *that* well set.

Pippin:
You might be telescoping history here. The US Military in WWII was
highly segregated. My dad said the US Navy at that time was the most
racist institution he ever encountered. 

Dumbledore and Arthur are radicals in their world. Moderate opinion
and wizarding institutions seem to be more with folks like Fudge and
Slughorn, who don't want to see Muggles slaughtered or Muggleborns
driven out of the WW, but stereotype them as inferior.  

They don't understand, being ignorant of Muggle history,  how easily
institutions that were already discriminatory could be manipulated by
someone like Voldemort into outright hatred and mass murder. Which is
exactly what happens in the books. 

Betsy Hp:
There's no law against the Ku Klux Klan, either. Doesn't mean
schools actively maintain a loving and safe environment for those
tiny little eleven year olds who just *adore* the Klan and everything
they stand for. Why does Hogwarts? Why *did* Hogwarts?

Pippin:
Um, I think they do, as long as the students aren't openly attacking
others. AFAIK, in my country you can belong to all the racist
organizations you like, as long as they don't advocate force.  It's
disgusting, IMO, but being disgusting is not against the law.

I don't believe that schools which teach freedom of conscience should
expel students for their beliefs. And I know of no parents who would
want their children indoctrinated against their beliefs. 

Why would the parents allow it if they had a choice? You'll notice
that Voldemort made attendance at Hogwarts mandatory, and that it
wasn't before.
 

Betsy Hp:
The Sorting Hat by laying out the principles of all the members of
each House (Slytherins are all, by definition, racists, otherwise
they wouldn't be in that House in the first place); the lack of a
single Slytherin in Neville's underground group; that call to arms
scene wherein no one from Slytherin House stood up for Hogwarts and
Harry (their loyalty was to themselves, not the WW); Voldemort's
attempt to destroy the Sorting Hat and make all students Slytherins
by default, and by implication, his.

Slytherin equals the Ku Klux Klan and/or the Nazi Party. 

Pippin:
I'd say it equals the Old South and/or pre-WWII Europe.
Institutionally racist, yes. Innately racist, no.

Slughorn would never willingly join the KKK or the Nazis. He's deeply
ashamed that he ever helped Riddle. He's not brave enough to fight
back alone, (neither are most of the Gryffindors) and he, like Harry,
believes it's his job to keep his people out of the fight if he can.

The people in Neville's underground army or standing up for Harry and
Hogwarts didn't just up and decide to do it from the goodness of their
hearts. They were actively recruited, over the space of three years,
by people who assumed (with the exception of Dumbledore) that
Slytherins could not be trusted. We hear of a very concerted effort to
make sure that everybody trusts Harry. But once Dumbledore dies,
there's no one  extending that message to Slytherin House. Snape, as
we're told, has to belittle Harry whether he wants to or not.


Betsy_Hp
But even more so, because a soul searching device made doubly sure all
members really were racist at heart before sticking them in that house.

Pippin:

But the Hat can't create racism any more than it can create cunning or
ambition.  Put potential Slytherins in another house and maybe they
won't learn to hate Muggleborns. But they'll hate somebody, unless
they learn another way to handle their anger. Which they can do just
as well in Slytherin. 

 Besides which, it's no good trying to fight bigotry piecemeal. The
Hat doesn't care how people feel about part-Trolls, or part-Giants or
werewolves, so there are plenty of bigots in the other houses and they
will all have to change their attitudes if this problem is to be fought.

Betsy Hp:
Yes, but all Gryffindors strive for bravery and chivalry. And all
Slytherins strive for racism and blood purity.

Pippin:
But you can't strive for blood purity.  You've either got it or you
don't. When nobody believes they have it, it will no longer exist. On
that day, the Hat might as well try to sort for Martians.

Pippin