A Trend Between Racism and the Hogwarts Houses
The other day, procrastinating over an essay for uni, I was struck by the sudden notion that the conflict between the Hogwarts houses was rather like some ethnic conflicts. So the procrastination went longer and I wrote this. It may be a bit dry as I was writing it when in academic essay mode... Hopefully it still has some interesting points.
It occurred to me the other day to consider the conflict between the houses of Hogwarts in terms of ethnic conflict. While the school houses in most schools are rather arbitrary, even they can be considered in terms of ethnic conflict, so that fact Hogwarts houses are chosen by inherent qualities (or choice) lends itself even more neatly to this analysis. I had a read of some of the essays on the House system in the hp_essays community and strongly recommend reading imation23’s The Possible Psychological Effects of the Hogwarts House System. http://www.livejournal.com/community/hp_essays/2430.html
In muggle society the students in a school are generally separated into four-ish arbitrary groups mostly in order to compete at sport days. Conveniently enough, these also tend to be separated into the colours blue, red, yellow and green (not familiar to the Harry Potter audience at all, I’m sure). These are ignored frequently (in my experience, at least) until the sport day descends, then rampant tribalism breaks out. ‘I’m in the yellow house! Green sucks!’ ‘Green, green, the winning machine!’ ‘Blue’s going to beat you!’. For no logical reason, other than that of each group wearing different colours and having different names, they band together, rejecting the other houses and stating that their team is better than any other, despite any obvious evidence to the contrary. Some would even genuinely believe that their house was superior, that they deserved to win more than any other. In any grown up society, a group of people of one colour or set of customs or both is known as ethnicity. When two or more of these groups come into conflict and that conflict is defined by the differences they have in their ethnic groups, manifesting itself in anything between and including racism to war, it is known as Ethnic Conflict.
Why would two groups come into conflict? Surely it would take more than just different customs and skin colour to create a conflict? One way of explaining conflict groups is though the notion of limited resources. Groups come into conflict when resources are limited and they are afraid the other group will cut off their access to it. In the muggle world, this is anything from water supply to land supply to seats in parliament. In Hogwarts, would it be unreasonable to say that the limited resource is the House Cup?
It doesn’t seem to be a massive leap of the imagination, then, to suppose that the House conflict in Harry Potter could be defined in terms of ethnic conflict. The defining ethnicity of each House is much like that of any ethnic group. They emphasise certain qualities, they have codes of behaviour, they have a ‘family’ like sense of community and loyalty and most obviously, they have a colour that they associate with their group. In the Muggle World ethnic groups are rarely without this considerations. How can one tell the difference between a Japanese person and an Australian person? The ethnic definition would say ‘the Japanese tend to be hard working and respectful to authority. They all speak Japanese and they have certain colour skin and appearance’. Alternatively the Australian definition would probably be ‘Australians are laconic and fun loving. They value ‘mateship’; all speak English and tend to fit the Anglo mould of appearance’. Obviously, neither is entirely true. People in Japan sometimes speak English and some have a healthy disregard for authority, Australians are often hard working and quite a few look nothing like the Anglo stereotype. It doesn’t mean they aren’t Japanese or Australian. Hogwarts houses fit rather neatly into these definitions. Ravenclaws are intelligent and witty; they value high grades and can be identified by their tendency to wear blue . Hufflepuffs are loyal and hardworking, they value friendship and dedication and can be identified by the colour yellow. Slytherins are cunning and ambitious; they value status and high achievement and can be identified by their green markings. Gryffindors are characterised by their courage and strength; they value standing up for one’s morals and wear the colour red. By no means does this mean that everyone in these houses is actually like that. What it does mean, however, is that the people in the houses are repeatedly told that they are like that, and when someone tells you that you are a particular thing repeatedly, you eventually come to believe them. How many times have you heard someone say ‘Whingeing Poms’ or ‘Sports-mad Aussies’ or ‘Rugby-obsessed Kiwis’? Too many to count, I’m sure (at least if you live in those countries, and if you don’t I’m sure you can fill in the local equivalent). But the more you hear it, the more you tend to see those things that confirm these views and ignore those that contradict them. Imation23 says in his/her essay:
"Dumbledore tells Harry at the end of ‘Chamber of Secrets’ that it is our choices which show who we really are. But to what extent are a person’s behaviour and choices influenced by internal, as opposed to external factors? Are some children sorted into Slytherin because they are generally meaner, more cunning, more sly and generally more unpleasant? Or does such behaviour become reinforced by the fact that they have been sorted into a house with a reputation for these characteristics?"
Being sorted into a house is likely to impress onto you how these are your primary qualities, especially in the impressionable state most teens are. Not only this, but there would also be a pressure to be those things to fit in, a pressure to make fun of Hufflepuffs and call the Ravenclaws nerds/squares/swots. Imation23 also says:
"This would probably prevent them from being as open with each other as they would have been if they were in the same House, resulting in more hostile behaviour and confirmation of previously held beliefs about what Slytherins and Gryffindors are like."
As with ethnic conflict, stereotypes are built up which make it easier to dislike people in general. If you hate the ethnic stereotype of someone, then it saves the bother of actually getting to know him or her and then finding an excuse to hate them. When you like someone it can be difficult to compete against them, if you hate them, it’s easy. The houses have this ingrained. They exist to compete, they have been around for centuries and they have a glorious history of winning marvellous victories over the Slytherin/Gryffindor scum. It’s tradition. The pressure to fit in amongst your peers is also a pressure to help your peers do well, to uphold the reputation of the house. Those who fail are ostracised like Harry, Ron and Neville were in PS.
Arguably, then, all that is needed for an ethnic conflict is present. Groups that appear to differ not just in colour but also in their customs and values are set up against each other in competition of the most prized and limited resource in their environment, the House Cup. They even go to war over it in a sense; the Quidditch standings and the Quidditch Cup count towards the eventual aim. Official competition is not the only battleground, however. Students make derisive comments about the other houses (AKA racism); they judge members of other houses before they’ve even met them; they fight for the honour of their family group; they stereotype the people from each house.
It is this segregation that has always bothered me about the HP books. How can one have an educated, balanced society if the children of the society are taught to segregate themselves and are rewarded for their competition? Even more so when it is openly encouraged by the wider Wizarding World. Even so, this still isn’t really the main problem. I’m sure it would work adequately if their society were not split already but the split at Hogwarts has been taken to represent a split in society on the whole. The main problem has to be the Slytherins. Slytherin represents the purebloods and the other three houses represent those who place no importance on blood. The divide in ‘reality’, however, has to be much more blurred than that.
There must be some people in other houses that place some importance on blood, even if unspoken. Some Slytherins are probably just cunning and ambitious and place no importance on blood at all. Unfortunately for them, they are in a dichotomous community. All Slytherins are untrustworthy and elitist. All those who aren’t in Slytherin must be somewhat okay if just for the fact they aren’t Slytherin. A classic example is Zacharius Smith, we have much more evidence of him being nasty than we have of Blaise Zabini being nasty, yet the reader and Harry assume that he must be okay because he’s a Hufflepuff and that Zabini must be horrible because he is a Slytherin.
Hagrid states himself that he distrusts those in Slytherin or have been in Slytherin, all the wizards that were bad had come from there (another racist claim, really, it has minimal basis in fact). In a school system that represents the whole of society so completely, this ethnic conflict between the houses and particularly between Slytherin and the others is extremely unhealthy. The youth are being taught from the age of 11 that people are different and should seek their family among those that are most similar to them. The groups they are put in are hardly different at all in essentials, yet they treat it as if the chasm were unable to be breached. One character (I suspect it was Draco) would prefer to be sent home than be in Hufflepuff, Ron would be terrified of telling his parents if he was in any house other than Gryffindor. It feels ridiculous to embrace this as a school system. I suspect it would also work adequately if the houses were not chosen on supposed abilities. These characteristic abilities add weight to the claims that the houses are intrinsically different, the authority of the sorting hat (it has supposedly never got a sorting wrong) adds more weight. There seems to be little doubt in the general school population that anyone would ever really fit in more in another house.
There are clues that JKR also disagrees with the house system (and ethnic conflict), however. Dumbledore emphasises the notion that our decisions affect who we are more than our abilities and later emphasises the need for the houses to work together. Percy Weasley’s ambition is his driving force, should he have been in Slytherin? The Sorting Hat tells Harry he would do well in Slytherin. The traits of each house are not mutually exclusive. How many people when asked what house they would be in reply, ‘probably a mix of all of them’ (and then feel terribly inadequate that they cannot define themselves well enough to put themselves in a box)? Does this indicate a resolution for the series? Some have put forward the theory that now Draco Malfoy has left the school, the Slytherins may come to resolve their differences between themselves and the rest of the school. Certainly some things within the text do seem to hint that the houses working together will play some part in the ‘good’ side’s eventual victory (that is, if you prescribe to the ‘victory’ scenario, but the alternative is rather depressing, and I’d rather not think about it). Certainly a major theme of the books is that it is our decisions that determine who we are, not what we’re born into. To have such a major theme and still remain with the houses intact at the end seem contradictory to me. I’d much rather have the abolishment of the houses, or at the very least the abolishment of the Sorting Hat and having arbitrary sorting. To have such a divisive and ethnic divide remain in the school would seem to undermine a major theme.
Maybe using ethnicity to explain this isn’t the best structure to use. In short what I hoped to put across was the idea that even at the best of times the Hogwarts Houses create a microcosm of ethnic conflict. When the Houses are chosen by qualities, this makes the ethnic conflict even worse, it has supposedly solid ground to point out the differences between them all. It teaches the students to identify themselves as part of artificially created groups, the differences in reality are minuscule. Even this would be tolerable if the houses had not come to represent the division in the Wizarding community between Pureblood and those who are indifferent towards blood. General distrust of Slytherins is taught at school, those who identify themselves as Slytherin are put into a group that confirms their opinions and are then set up in opposition to groups that disagree with their opinions. Surely this cannot be healthy and I would dearly love to see this dealt with by the end of the series.
As an extra thought, a school of thought says that people's ethnic bonds become stronger when they feel uncertain. Is this what has been going on in Slytherin? They feel rejected by the rest of Wizarding society, so they band together more strongly, reassuring themsleves that their ethnicity is better than everyone elses? Finally, do pure-bloods feel threatened by half-blood and muggleborns? Is that why they are so against them? They do challenge the tradition of the Wizarding World, they do bring in Muggle ideas, would they hold so closely to their traditions if they didn't feel threatened by these unknowns?
It occurred to me the other day to consider the conflict between the houses of Hogwarts in terms of ethnic conflict. While the school houses in most schools are rather arbitrary, even they can be considered in terms of ethnic conflict, so that fact Hogwarts houses are chosen by inherent qualities (or choice) lends itself even more neatly to this analysis. I had a read of some of the essays on the House system in the hp_essays community and strongly recommend reading imation23’s The Possible Psychological Effects of the Hogwarts House System. http://www.livejournal.com/community/hp_essays/2430.html
In muggle society the students in a school are generally separated into four-ish arbitrary groups mostly in order to compete at sport days. Conveniently enough, these also tend to be separated into the colours blue, red, yellow and green (not familiar to the Harry Potter audience at all, I’m sure). These are ignored frequently (in my experience, at least) until the sport day descends, then rampant tribalism breaks out. ‘I’m in the yellow house! Green sucks!’ ‘Green, green, the winning machine!’ ‘Blue’s going to beat you!’. For no logical reason, other than that of each group wearing different colours and having different names, they band together, rejecting the other houses and stating that their team is better than any other, despite any obvious evidence to the contrary. Some would even genuinely believe that their house was superior, that they deserved to win more than any other. In any grown up society, a group of people of one colour or set of customs or both is known as ethnicity. When two or more of these groups come into conflict and that conflict is defined by the differences they have in their ethnic groups, manifesting itself in anything between and including racism to war, it is known as Ethnic Conflict.
Why would two groups come into conflict? Surely it would take more than just different customs and skin colour to create a conflict? One way of explaining conflict groups is though the notion of limited resources. Groups come into conflict when resources are limited and they are afraid the other group will cut off their access to it. In the muggle world, this is anything from water supply to land supply to seats in parliament. In Hogwarts, would it be unreasonable to say that the limited resource is the House Cup?
It doesn’t seem to be a massive leap of the imagination, then, to suppose that the House conflict in Harry Potter could be defined in terms of ethnic conflict. The defining ethnicity of each House is much like that of any ethnic group. They emphasise certain qualities, they have codes of behaviour, they have a ‘family’ like sense of community and loyalty and most obviously, they have a colour that they associate with their group. In the Muggle World ethnic groups are rarely without this considerations. How can one tell the difference between a Japanese person and an Australian person? The ethnic definition would say ‘the Japanese tend to be hard working and respectful to authority. They all speak Japanese and they have certain colour skin and appearance’. Alternatively the Australian definition would probably be ‘Australians are laconic and fun loving. They value ‘mateship’; all speak English and tend to fit the Anglo mould of appearance’. Obviously, neither is entirely true. People in Japan sometimes speak English and some have a healthy disregard for authority, Australians are often hard working and quite a few look nothing like the Anglo stereotype. It doesn’t mean they aren’t Japanese or Australian. Hogwarts houses fit rather neatly into these definitions. Ravenclaws are intelligent and witty; they value high grades and can be identified by their tendency to wear blue . Hufflepuffs are loyal and hardworking, they value friendship and dedication and can be identified by the colour yellow. Slytherins are cunning and ambitious; they value status and high achievement and can be identified by their green markings. Gryffindors are characterised by their courage and strength; they value standing up for one’s morals and wear the colour red. By no means does this mean that everyone in these houses is actually like that. What it does mean, however, is that the people in the houses are repeatedly told that they are like that, and when someone tells you that you are a particular thing repeatedly, you eventually come to believe them. How many times have you heard someone say ‘Whingeing Poms’ or ‘Sports-mad Aussies’ or ‘Rugby-obsessed Kiwis’? Too many to count, I’m sure (at least if you live in those countries, and if you don’t I’m sure you can fill in the local equivalent). But the more you hear it, the more you tend to see those things that confirm these views and ignore those that contradict them. Imation23 says in his/her essay:
"Dumbledore tells Harry at the end of ‘Chamber of Secrets’ that it is our choices which show who we really are. But to what extent are a person’s behaviour and choices influenced by internal, as opposed to external factors? Are some children sorted into Slytherin because they are generally meaner, more cunning, more sly and generally more unpleasant? Or does such behaviour become reinforced by the fact that they have been sorted into a house with a reputation for these characteristics?"
Being sorted into a house is likely to impress onto you how these are your primary qualities, especially in the impressionable state most teens are. Not only this, but there would also be a pressure to be those things to fit in, a pressure to make fun of Hufflepuffs and call the Ravenclaws nerds/squares/swots. Imation23 also says:
"This would probably prevent them from being as open with each other as they would have been if they were in the same House, resulting in more hostile behaviour and confirmation of previously held beliefs about what Slytherins and Gryffindors are like."
As with ethnic conflict, stereotypes are built up which make it easier to dislike people in general. If you hate the ethnic stereotype of someone, then it saves the bother of actually getting to know him or her and then finding an excuse to hate them. When you like someone it can be difficult to compete against them, if you hate them, it’s easy. The houses have this ingrained. They exist to compete, they have been around for centuries and they have a glorious history of winning marvellous victories over the Slytherin/Gryffindor scum. It’s tradition. The pressure to fit in amongst your peers is also a pressure to help your peers do well, to uphold the reputation of the house. Those who fail are ostracised like Harry, Ron and Neville were in PS.
Arguably, then, all that is needed for an ethnic conflict is present. Groups that appear to differ not just in colour but also in their customs and values are set up against each other in competition of the most prized and limited resource in their environment, the House Cup. They even go to war over it in a sense; the Quidditch standings and the Quidditch Cup count towards the eventual aim. Official competition is not the only battleground, however. Students make derisive comments about the other houses (AKA racism); they judge members of other houses before they’ve even met them; they fight for the honour of their family group; they stereotype the people from each house.
It is this segregation that has always bothered me about the HP books. How can one have an educated, balanced society if the children of the society are taught to segregate themselves and are rewarded for their competition? Even more so when it is openly encouraged by the wider Wizarding World. Even so, this still isn’t really the main problem. I’m sure it would work adequately if their society were not split already but the split at Hogwarts has been taken to represent a split in society on the whole. The main problem has to be the Slytherins. Slytherin represents the purebloods and the other three houses represent those who place no importance on blood. The divide in ‘reality’, however, has to be much more blurred than that.
There must be some people in other houses that place some importance on blood, even if unspoken. Some Slytherins are probably just cunning and ambitious and place no importance on blood at all. Unfortunately for them, they are in a dichotomous community. All Slytherins are untrustworthy and elitist. All those who aren’t in Slytherin must be somewhat okay if just for the fact they aren’t Slytherin. A classic example is Zacharius Smith, we have much more evidence of him being nasty than we have of Blaise Zabini being nasty, yet the reader and Harry assume that he must be okay because he’s a Hufflepuff and that Zabini must be horrible because he is a Slytherin.
Hagrid states himself that he distrusts those in Slytherin or have been in Slytherin, all the wizards that were bad had come from there (another racist claim, really, it has minimal basis in fact). In a school system that represents the whole of society so completely, this ethnic conflict between the houses and particularly between Slytherin and the others is extremely unhealthy. The youth are being taught from the age of 11 that people are different and should seek their family among those that are most similar to them. The groups they are put in are hardly different at all in essentials, yet they treat it as if the chasm were unable to be breached. One character (I suspect it was Draco) would prefer to be sent home than be in Hufflepuff, Ron would be terrified of telling his parents if he was in any house other than Gryffindor. It feels ridiculous to embrace this as a school system. I suspect it would also work adequately if the houses were not chosen on supposed abilities. These characteristic abilities add weight to the claims that the houses are intrinsically different, the authority of the sorting hat (it has supposedly never got a sorting wrong) adds more weight. There seems to be little doubt in the general school population that anyone would ever really fit in more in another house.
There are clues that JKR also disagrees with the house system (and ethnic conflict), however. Dumbledore emphasises the notion that our decisions affect who we are more than our abilities and later emphasises the need for the houses to work together. Percy Weasley’s ambition is his driving force, should he have been in Slytherin? The Sorting Hat tells Harry he would do well in Slytherin. The traits of each house are not mutually exclusive. How many people when asked what house they would be in reply, ‘probably a mix of all of them’ (and then feel terribly inadequate that they cannot define themselves well enough to put themselves in a box)? Does this indicate a resolution for the series? Some have put forward the theory that now Draco Malfoy has left the school, the Slytherins may come to resolve their differences between themselves and the rest of the school. Certainly some things within the text do seem to hint that the houses working together will play some part in the ‘good’ side’s eventual victory (that is, if you prescribe to the ‘victory’ scenario, but the alternative is rather depressing, and I’d rather not think about it). Certainly a major theme of the books is that it is our decisions that determine who we are, not what we’re born into. To have such a major theme and still remain with the houses intact at the end seem contradictory to me. I’d much rather have the abolishment of the houses, or at the very least the abolishment of the Sorting Hat and having arbitrary sorting. To have such a divisive and ethnic divide remain in the school would seem to undermine a major theme.
Maybe using ethnicity to explain this isn’t the best structure to use. In short what I hoped to put across was the idea that even at the best of times the Hogwarts Houses create a microcosm of ethnic conflict. When the Houses are chosen by qualities, this makes the ethnic conflict even worse, it has supposedly solid ground to point out the differences between them all. It teaches the students to identify themselves as part of artificially created groups, the differences in reality are minuscule. Even this would be tolerable if the houses had not come to represent the division in the Wizarding community between Pureblood and those who are indifferent towards blood. General distrust of Slytherins is taught at school, those who identify themselves as Slytherin are put into a group that confirms their opinions and are then set up in opposition to groups that disagree with their opinions. Surely this cannot be healthy and I would dearly love to see this dealt with by the end of the series.
As an extra thought, a school of thought says that people's ethnic bonds become stronger when they feel uncertain. Is this what has been going on in Slytherin? They feel rejected by the rest of Wizarding society, so they band together more strongly, reassuring themsleves that their ethnicity is better than everyone elses? Finally, do pure-bloods feel threatened by half-blood and muggleborns? Is that why they are so against them? They do challenge the tradition of the Wizarding World, they do bring in Muggle ideas, would they hold so closely to their traditions if they didn't feel threatened by these unknowns?