Token People of Colour In Harry Potter

[joe_mulcahy]

No no, put away your swords, or shall I say wands. I am not calling J K Rowling, or any of you who write Harry Potter fanfics racists, I merely wanted to discuss the roles of the precious few Black characters in the series

Comments

[ex_cutekeepe118]

Interesting observations.

I am black, and I remember that way before I was ever interested in HP, friends of mine would tell me that I should read the books and "support Gryffindor, because that's where the black people are."

I thought they were joking, because when I read the books and discovered Lee Jordan and Dean Thomas and Angelina Johnson, I didn't think of Gryffindor as the "Black-People House." But in the movies, there seem to be a lot of black students who are Gryffindors, and I found that fascinating. Since JKR has little to do with the movies, I'm assuming that the extras hired to portray other students in the houses are up to the casting directors, but I did think it interesting.

I'm pretty sensitive to the inclusion (or exclusion) of black folk in literature. I can tell fairly well when an author is thrusting in a person of colour just to be "PC" or to appeal to a wider audience. I never got that vibe with JKR. In fact, it would have seemed to me, with the large Caribbean and African populations in Great Britain if there hadn't been any black students.

I also like that there's not a lot of stereotyping going on with the black students and characters there. Dean's father was a pureblood, if I'm remembering my facts straight. It would seem to figure that purebloods in the magical world tend to be white, so that was an interesting wrinkle. Angelina is described as being "quite attractive" and she garners attention from George (or is it Fred?) Dean dates Ginny. If nothing else, JKR reflects the realities of interracial friendships and relationships, and I do like that.

JKR states that she chose to develop Neville Longbottom over Dean Thomas because the former was more important to the series. I suspect that is comes down to Neville being white and Dean being black.

Interesting. While I don't know why Dean couldn't have been Neville - that is, I don't see why JKR could not have made Dean the other wizard to whom the prophecy could have applied - I can't say that colour had anything to do with it. Maybe JKR did plan on making Dean more important, but found Neville's tragic story more compelling. I'm not sure. I'm disappointed, sure, that Dean seems to be getting the short end of stick, but I'm not going to start calling Jesse Jackson yet :D

Your point about Padma and Parvati is well taken. Many men in my family are ga-ga over South Asian women, Indian and Pakistani women especially (and if you notice, Dean, a black young man, says that the Patil twins are the prettiest girls in the school), so it did surprise me that Padma and Parvati were seen as last resorts by Ron and Harry. I don't know if that was so much because of their colour as because of other mitigating circumstances (Ron being upset about the Hermione situation and Harry being hurt at the rebuff by Cho.)

Your comments are all well-thought-out and provocative. I'm going to be thinking about this for the rest of the night!

[joe_mulcahy]

Bear in mind, that there was NO Dean Thomas in the British version of Philosopher's Stone. He was added almost like an afterthought to please those of you across the pond.