I'll teach the lot and treat them all the same
I'll just preface this with letting people know I have one Jewish and one Catholic parent. If you don't already know that. As such, religious pluralism is very important to me. I go all Hulk when someone is excluded because of their faith. Or who they are. (Which is kind of also why I hated Cody in the Agent of Hel series, but I digress.)
Her tweet didn't bother me. Whatever, she didn't picture Wiccans there. That just shows her lack of imagination. But her explanation pissed the hell out of me. To the point of I'm lumping her with Orson Scott Card as in she is able to write a pretty book about tolerance even though that's not what she believes. I'm shaking as I write this.
To explain her tweet, she wrote: "It's a different concept of magic to the one laid out in the books, so I don't really see how they can co-exist." I find this to be incredibly offensive. She used the term "co-exist" to exclude people based on their faith. Co-exist is that bumper sticker word we use to encourage religious tolerance. But there is something inherently different or flawed about a Wiccan's concept of magic that would make them unable, in Rowling's mind, to "co-exist" with her world. This tells me that she is either bigoted or ignorant. What is it about Wiccan magic that is so different from magic in Judaism or Islam that makes their magic incompatible with a fictional universe? Does she not know about Kabbalah or Sufism and that magic exists in these faiths as well? Or is it just that Wiccans use the term "witch" and "magic"? Because I use the word "charm," "spell," or "summon," to name a few in a way completely different than Harry does. Because I'm a lawyer and ask the court to issue a "summons," does that mean my concept of language is incompatible with Hogwarts?
I cannot comprehend how a practitioner of a faith that teaches "thou shall not allow a witch to live" is ok to go to Hogwarts, but one who's faith teaches "an if it harm none, do as ye will" cannot "co-exist" with other at Hogwarts.
My parents grew up only a few miles from each other. There was a swim club that my dad's family went to all the time. It was a lot of fun. He took me there when I was older. It had ropes you could swing across the lake on like Tarzan. It had a zip line and high diving boards. It had floating piers. My dad learned to swim there and spent his summers there. My mother never went as a child because it had a sign out front saying "no Jews, blacks, or dogs."
So don't fucking tell me that it's ok that one of the world's best selling authors decided to marginalize a group of people because of her ignorance of that faith (and others). Your privilege is showing.
Her tweet didn't bother me. Whatever, she didn't picture Wiccans there. That just shows her lack of imagination. But her explanation pissed the hell out of me. To the point of I'm lumping her with Orson Scott Card as in she is able to write a pretty book about tolerance even though that's not what she believes. I'm shaking as I write this.
To explain her tweet, she wrote: "It's a different concept of magic to the one laid out in the books, so I don't really see how they can co-exist." I find this to be incredibly offensive. She used the term "co-exist" to exclude people based on their faith. Co-exist is that bumper sticker word we use to encourage religious tolerance. But there is something inherently different or flawed about a Wiccan's concept of magic that would make them unable, in Rowling's mind, to "co-exist" with her world. This tells me that she is either bigoted or ignorant. What is it about Wiccan magic that is so different from magic in Judaism or Islam that makes their magic incompatible with a fictional universe? Does she not know about Kabbalah or Sufism and that magic exists in these faiths as well? Or is it just that Wiccans use the term "witch" and "magic"? Because I use the word "charm," "spell," or "summon," to name a few in a way completely different than Harry does. Because I'm a lawyer and ask the court to issue a "summons," does that mean my concept of language is incompatible with Hogwarts?
I cannot comprehend how a practitioner of a faith that teaches "thou shall not allow a witch to live" is ok to go to Hogwarts, but one who's faith teaches "an if it harm none, do as ye will" cannot "co-exist" with other at Hogwarts.
My parents grew up only a few miles from each other. There was a swim club that my dad's family went to all the time. It was a lot of fun. He took me there when I was older. It had ropes you could swing across the lake on like Tarzan. It had a zip line and high diving boards. It had floating piers. My dad learned to swim there and spent his summers there. My mother never went as a child because it had a sign out front saying "no Jews, blacks, or dogs."
So don't fucking tell me that it's ok that one of the world's best selling authors decided to marginalize a group of people because of her ignorance of that faith (and others). Your privilege is showing.