[ SECRET POST #5038 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5038 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 18 secrets from Secret Submission Post #721.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I always wonder why people 'racebend' James Potter when he's probably the whitest of white characters in the books. He's a pureblood from a well-established wealthy family and let's be honest, the magical world is probably as racist as the non-magical world so the likelihood of a non-white Potter family being so established is very unlikely (same goes for Sirius Black and the Malfoys).

Lily could of course come from a non-white background but do you think someone like Vernon Dursely would marry a non-white woman? I doubt it so it's unlikely that the Evans family are non-white.

Snape would fit better as someone from a mixed background but I rarely see him 'racebent'.

[(Anonymous)]

+10000 to all of this.

[(Anonymous)]

ALL OF THIS.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, the Wizarding World's bigotry seems to lie in magical blood and wizards versus other magical beings (goblins, elves, giants, etc.), so I think a case could be made for the Wizarding World being less mindful about people of color.

But I do absolutely agree that Vernon Dursley would never marry a non-white woman and that the Dursleys would bring it up and be pretty awful about it if Harry was multiracial due to his father being of Indian descent.

And I think that if Hermione is Black, then some of the stuff about her hair takes on different connotations.

[(Anonymous)]

Like... They do in fact shit-talk James a few times and the kind of people they are would never keep any racist remark to themselves if he had been Indian on top of everything else.

[(Anonymous)]

Definitely agreeing with what you're saying. I think what's more important to wizards is blood and magic (but I wouldn't put it TOTALLY past them). Look at the way many people view Fleur since she's half witch half siren, is it? Exoticism. Lupin and any who are werewolves are deemed subhuman (despite being wizards or witches 29-30 days out of the month). And of course goblins, elba, centaurs, and other sentient magical creatures are treated as less.

To the Dursleys point. The only way I could ever imagine that is if Lily was the one who was mixed, and Petunia came out as the fully white passing sister (which would then also mean different things for their relationship and exploring that would take nuance). But for that to work, Vernon could have NEVER met Petunia's family. I also don't know what the UK in the 90's (and arguably the 80s) was like in regards to race and mixing and all that -- my context is completely different and this kind of nuanced requires a lot of research or possibly lived experience./knowledge of the mores. I guess Harry's dad also being mixed could, in theory work, since the wizarding world cares less about Complexion/race than muggles do, and the Potters could have married a South East Asian woman -- as long as she was pureblooded. And I will agree with The poster above me who comments on the fact that she wouldn't necessarily have to be Indian. She could easily have been Pakistani, Bengali, Sri Lankan, hell West Indian. There has always been a lot of Caribbean immigration to the UK.

In regards to Hermione being black, or at least mixed, that is something that, while reading the books as a kid, while I knew she was white, I kind of liked to pretend she was black/half. It was finally a main character in a book with hair like mine. I remember feeling upset when they kept her hair straight in the movies. But I got over it because I knew it wasn't what I pretended anyway. And yeah, the insults to her hair would have taken on a far more loaded connotation if this was the case.

SA

[(Anonymous)]

*Bangladeshi, not Bengali, apologies

[chamonix]

Honestly, the people doing the racebending usually don't seem at all familiar with the UK's cultural structure/makeup in the first place, which always takes me out of it. It's like they heard "lots of Indians live in the UK" and that's the beginning and end of their research. Nevermind that Pakistani arguably has a larger majority.

[(Anonymous)]

Arguably, the character most likely to be Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi would be Hermione because her parents are dentists. There seems to be a lot of Asian dentists in the UK.

Tonks could easily be mixed race because it would have really upset the Black family if not only did one of their family marry a Muggle, they married a *non-white* Muggle (the Black family seem super prejudice so I reckon that would be a big issue for them)

Snape is a very good possibility as well, perhaps his dad was second generation Pakistani or mixed so Snape arrives at Hogwarts as a mixed raced mixed-blood poor kid who is an immediate target for James Potter.

Hagrid could be mixed race as well as half-giant. Maybe instead of reading him as having a West Country type accent, we should be reading him as having a slight Jamaican accent?

There aren't that many characters you could make a decent case for being non-white. I wonder if there aren't that many non-white magical folk in the UK. Would 'African' magic be different from 'European' magic? Did the British wizard folk try to suppress the magic of Indian wizards? How much did British colonial history affect the wizarding world?

[(Anonymous)]

Maybe all of this is just trying too bloody hard. JKR's world is as white as it is basically middle class. Deal with it.

[chamonix]

I love all of these ideas, particularly your reasoning for why other characters would make more sense to be asian than James Potter, the epitome of British Landed Gentry.

The Imperial stuff regarding Britain's colonial history with India is a really fascinating avenue as well. What-ifs like this remind me of the long summer between books 4 and 5 when the internet was just exploding with creative ideas and theories.

[(Anonymous)]

I like your reasoning on all of this - I personally quite like racebending and genderbending, but only when they're used to say something interesting (and when they're tagged appropriately).

[(Anonymous)]

They racebend James because he's a bully and if they make him a POC then they can feel better about it. Pretty sure it's not conscious, but yeah. That's my bet.