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If we carry through on the racism/blood prejudice equivalency...
was James Potter a racist of the worst order?
Think back to the Snape's Worst Memory scene. Remember when Lily asks James just what Severus ever did to him? The reply from James was, "it's more the fact that he exists if you know what I mean. . ." Most people, IMO, interpret that to mean the bully's "natural" prey instinct had kicked in, but what if we are going to carry through on the claim that anti-Muggle and Muggleborn prejudice is equivalent to racism.
These boys were born in 1960, and it was not until 1967 that Loving v. Virginia struck down anti-miscegenation laws in the US. Ahhh, you say, stop trying to apply American standards and baggage to Brits. So let's look at Rowling's model: Anti-miscegenation laws were enforced in Nazi Germany. They were also enforced in South Africa between 1949 and 1985. So....was Snape's existence the result of a violation of the law? How many half-bloods did we see in the Marauder era? And even if it's not illegal, was it considered shameful by a large segment of the Wizarding population? No, it wasn't by Harry's time, but mores change. Is that part of what James meant when he said it was that Severus existed? He added "if you know what I mean", which is the nod-nod, wink-wink of a racist, roughly equivalent to the loaded statements characters in Seinfeld used to make about homosexuals, always followed up with the tag line: "Not that there's anything wrong with that." (nod, nod, wink, wink). It's also the shrug and eye-roll that accompanies many whites' comments about Native Americans, with the apparent idea that they can imply the most outrageously racist things, and it doesn't count because they trail off towards the end. But their buddies all know what they meant, so they're covered either way.
I can almost hear the howls of outrage. ;-) You idiot, they say, he was married to LILY, the ultimate poster child for Muggle-borns. But...
How many friends did James Potter have who were not pureblood? I mean friends, as opposed to hangers-on or sycophants. We know he was married to Lily, obviously. Which means that he made an exception for his own behavior, not uncommon at all for bigots. And yes, he "befriended" Lupin the werewolf in school. But how much did he do after school, when Lupin was not a dorm-mate and, later, a prefect in a position to choose between admiring them or blowing the whistle on Sirius and him? Rowling said in her interviews post-DH that James was independently wealthy, which allowed James and Sirius not to worry about having jobs, so they could "work" for the Order full-time. Note that she does not include Lupin in James' largesse, which according to her extended to James' wife and Sirius, who just happened to be pure-blooded.
These boys were born in 1960, and it was not until 1967 that Loving v. Virginia struck down anti-miscegenation laws in the US. Ahhh, you say, stop trying to apply American standards and baggage to Brits. So let's look at Rowling's model: Anti-miscegenation laws were enforced in Nazi Germany. They were also enforced in South Africa between 1949 and 1985. So....was Snape's existence the result of a violation of the law? How many half-bloods did we see in the Marauder era? And even if it's not illegal, was it considered shameful by a large segment of the Wizarding population? No, it wasn't by Harry's time, but mores change. Is that part of what James meant when he said it was that Severus existed? He added "if you know what I mean", which is the nod-nod, wink-wink of a racist, roughly equivalent to the loaded statements characters in Seinfeld used to make about homosexuals, always followed up with the tag line: "Not that there's anything wrong with that." (nod, nod, wink, wink). It's also the shrug and eye-roll that accompanies many whites' comments about Native Americans, with the apparent idea that they can imply the most outrageously racist things, and it doesn't count because they trail off towards the end. But their buddies all know what they meant, so they're covered either way.
I can almost hear the howls of outrage. ;-) You idiot, they say, he was married to LILY, the ultimate poster child for Muggle-borns. But...
How many friends did James Potter have who were not pureblood? I mean friends, as opposed to hangers-on or sycophants. We know he was married to Lily, obviously. Which means that he made an exception for his own behavior, not uncommon at all for bigots. And yes, he "befriended" Lupin the werewolf in school. But how much did he do after school, when Lupin was not a dorm-mate and, later, a prefect in a position to choose between admiring them or blowing the whistle on Sirius and him? Rowling said in her interviews post-DH that James was independently wealthy, which allowed James and Sirius not to worry about having jobs, so they could "work" for the Order full-time. Note that she does not include Lupin in James' largesse, which according to her extended to James' wife and Sirius, who just happened to be pure-blooded.
Re: Racism, power, sexuality (2/2)
People do not want to see it, which is why they will not do so.
Sorry for my rantish tone.
Heh. I'm in no position to talk, given what I'm about to say...
The thing is that when Rowling, et al, shoved the Nazi Germany racist parallel crap down our throats, they don't get to stop half-way through. And so we have to look at what came before, and how Gryffindors like Dumbledore, the Potters, etc., reinforced a society built on prejudice. Similarly, you know, the Nazis did not seize power in a vacuum. The reason they were so successful is that they built upon the prejudices and bigotries widespread not only throughout Germany, but also the rest of Europe and North America . (Consider that famous Niebuhr quote about nobody being left to speak out by the time they came for him.) Very few people get off blamelessly in that one.
And so, if we are to follow the parallel Rowling set us upon, Dumbledore, the Potters, etc., step into the shoes of the powerful, influential and, above all, establishment people of the 1920's and 30's, like Joseph Kennedy, who made his fortune and then spoke admiringly of Hitler and wanted to appease the Nazis so he could keep his position comfortable.
And thus, if people really do want us to talk about Voldemort and the Death Eaters as the Nazis, we must consider the people who paved the way for them: Dumbledore and the Gryffindors as the ones who reinforced a calcifying society built on racism, bigotry, and social inequality, and completely incapable of handling the economic and social stresses of the time.
And then we can also look at how Rowling turned Hermione Granger into the "good Muggle-born". But having her treat her parents like cattle by uprooting them from their livelihoods and home, and depositing them half-way across the world without any recognition that they were human beings with the right of self-determination, all to suit her sense of entitlement to convenience as a Witch. And then to have her subsume all her ambitions into that of her pure-blood husband, to the point of ignoring the way he hexes a muggle because he's too lazy to look in a mirror... It just makes me say: Ick, ick, ick.
does Sirius with his poster of Naughty Muggle Girls (who are helplessly immobile, unlike their wizarding counterparts) on his wall smack even more clearly of a privileged-race boy getting off on the racial power play?
Well, I see what you mean. But Rowling thinks that is "dead sexy", which really makes me rather ill to think that she's going around telling boys how they are supposed to act.