Re: Which actually brings things back to Terri's post
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[*] That has important social ramifications, because it means that this society can't develop a group of permanent half-bloods. Muggleborns and half-bloods will keep entering the society, but their descendants will keep becoming part of the pure-blood portion of society.
Actually, if half-bloods and Muggle-borns keep entering society, then there will always be some half-bloods and Muggle-borns, so the fact that there is a half-blood and Muggle-born segment of society will remain and it is a permanent part of society (so long as half-boods and Muggle-borns keep entering society). The individual players will change (and that’s going to happen anyway, due to people dying and being born), but the fact that there are half-bloods and Muggle-borns will remain.
Certainly, it is easier to aspire to “purify” one’s line in the wizarding world, since half-bloods and Muggle-borns don’t need to intermarry with pure-bloods and can figure that their descendents will at least be wizards (aside from any worries of giving birth to Squibs).
Blood purists are worried about pure-bloods dying out and not being a permanent part of society, though. Hence, the most extremist factions want to eliminate Muggle-borns and Muggles, because they “taint the blood” too much. Less extreme blood purists want to at least keep their own lines pure.
And that affects a lot of things, including group identity. If you know your children will be pure-bloods, you're less likely to agitate for change. After all, it isn't a problem that your loved ones will face forever, and if you try to tackle the problem, you'll only draw attention to the fact that your children are *recent* pure-bloods.
This I agree with and it is a good point and works just as well (if not even better) if you recognize blood prejudice in terms of racism. In fact, denying the racism inherent in blood prejudice does this point no favors. That effect on group identity is not that different than someone of mixed race who can “pass” and has married a person of the majority race or another mixed race person who can “pass” and figures that racism isn’t their problem, because it won’t effect their family forever as long as they don’t bring attention to the fact that their offspring have recent racial purity taint. It also works with the xenophobic (anit-immigrantism) parallel. I can understand wanting to include both parallels of xenophobia and racism for the fullest exploration of the issue, but what I fail to understand is the insistence in denying latter.
Which suggests (bringing things back to Terri's post!) that Muggleborns probably *aren't* 25% of the whole British WW's population. First- and second-generation immigrants aren't 25% of the US population, but there are still enough of them to band together against anti-immigrant policies, so if Muggleborns were 25% of the WW, you'd expect a similar banding together. Since we don't see that banding together, that suggests that either Muggleborns constitute much less than 25% of the population, or there's something else keeping them from banding together.
*rereads terri’s essay* Terri seems to be arguing that Muggle-borns make up a higher percentage of Slytherin than they are given credit for (a point I disagree with, but that is beside the issue we are currently discussing).
Anyway, I would agree that complacency for blood prejudice is a factor in why there doesn’t appear to be more anti-blood prejudice activism in the wizarding world. I would also add that 25% is still a very well outnumbered minority group, and even minority groups that actually comprise over 50% of a population can be kept down by institutional racism (or any institutional prejudice/bigotry) due in part to issues of complacency.
(cont.)
Actually, if half-bloods and Muggle-borns keep entering society, then there will always be some half-bloods and Muggle-borns, so the fact that there is a half-blood and Muggle-born segment of society will remain and it is a permanent part of society (so long as half-boods and Muggle-borns keep entering society). The individual players will change (and that’s going to happen anyway, due to people dying and being born), but the fact that there are half-bloods and Muggle-borns will remain.
Certainly, it is easier to aspire to “purify” one’s line in the wizarding world, since half-bloods and Muggle-borns don’t need to intermarry with pure-bloods and can figure that their descendents will at least be wizards (aside from any worries of giving birth to Squibs).
Blood purists are worried about pure-bloods dying out and not being a permanent part of society, though. Hence, the most extremist factions want to eliminate Muggle-borns and Muggles, because they “taint the blood” too much. Less extreme blood purists want to at least keep their own lines pure.
And that affects a lot of things, including group identity. If you know your children will be pure-bloods, you're less likely to agitate for change. After all, it isn't a problem that your loved ones will face forever, and if you try to tackle the problem, you'll only draw attention to the fact that your children are *recent* pure-bloods.
This I agree with and it is a good point and works just as well (if not even better) if you recognize blood prejudice in terms of racism. In fact, denying the racism inherent in blood prejudice does this point no favors. That effect on group identity is not that different than someone of mixed race who can “pass” and has married a person of the majority race or another mixed race person who can “pass” and figures that racism isn’t their problem, because it won’t effect their family forever as long as they don’t bring attention to the fact that their offspring have recent racial purity taint. It also works with the xenophobic (anit-immigrantism) parallel. I can understand wanting to include both parallels of xenophobia and racism for the fullest exploration of the issue, but what I fail to understand is the insistence in denying latter.
Which suggests (bringing things back to Terri's post!) that Muggleborns probably *aren't* 25% of the whole British WW's population. First- and second-generation immigrants aren't 25% of the US population, but there are still enough of them to band together against anti-immigrant policies, so if Muggleborns were 25% of the WW, you'd expect a similar banding together. Since we don't see that banding together, that suggests that either Muggleborns constitute much less than 25% of the population, or there's something else keeping them from banding together.
*rereads terri’s essay* Terri seems to be arguing that Muggle-borns make up a higher percentage of Slytherin than they are given credit for (a point I disagree with, but that is beside the issue we are currently discussing).
Anyway, I would agree that complacency for blood prejudice is a factor in why there doesn’t appear to be more anti-blood prejudice activism in the wizarding world. I would also add that 25% is still a very well outnumbered minority group, and even minority groups that actually comprise over 50% of a population can be kept down by institutional racism (or any institutional prejudice/bigotry) due in part to issues of complacency.
(cont.)