Gonna make a fool of myself here. I know Helena Bonham Carter (who played boss-level death eater Bellatrix Lestrange) has all kinds of English nobility in her ancestry, but does she not also have some melanin in her family tree?
Now that I say that, I have no idea where I got that idea. Googling doesn’t turn up anything like that. Am I crazy?
To elaborate on AClockworkMelon’s reply a bit, the bigotry shown in the book is entirely along magic/nonmagic and human/nonhuman lines, as far as I can recall. No one, good or bad, particularly seems to care about human skin color–which actually makes a measure of sense, given that the differences they do discriminate on are more dramatic. Bigotry over skin color could plausibly get lost in the noise, I think. Not to mention that it would generally be safer to discriminate against a guy whose skin tone matches yours, but who can’t curse you to death, than a differently pigmented person who can.
Anybody else think the black kid announcer in the first movie was a girl?
We have a smiley for that, you know.
Don’t make me unleash the badgers.
Well, okay, it’s just one badger. But it’s a HONEY badger.
Are there any black or Indian or otherwise ethnic characters in main roles? There’s Cho Chang, who is I believe Scottish and ethnically Chinese. Anyone else?
I have already mentioned Padma and Parvati Patil. Lots of other “ethnic” characters have been mentioned in the thread if you actually read it. It is true, however, that all the main protagonists are white.
Kingsley isn’t really a “main character” but he’s not exactly an extra.
I read it and I have read the books (but it’s been a while) but none of the really important characters are anything but white. Padma and Parvati are side characters at best.
Neville
Luna
the Trio
Slughorn
All the teachers
The parents (obviously)
The Ministers
Almost all white…i think there is one black guy in the Order of the Phoenix that’s pretty important? I can’t remember his name but they cast that fairly good looking black guy in the movie.
ETA: Kingsley! Yes that’s his name.
Hell if I know. But Mrs. R. & I will be reading the books to one another at bedtime starting next week.
In any unrelated matter, I am making this, this, and this for dinner Saturday night, so turn on your teleport pad for the leftovers.
A case could be made for Nymphadora Tonks being whatever the hell color you want.
Indeed, like almost all books written by white authors from majority white countries. In fact, it seems fairly obvious to me that Rowling made a quite deliberate effort to include non-white minor characters to reflect the racial diversity of Britain, but nobody’s race plays any plot role whatsoever.
As I also already pointed out, Kingsley actually becomes Minister of Magic at the end.
They go to Clortho
If we are trying to catch Ms Rowling out in some sort of implicit racism, I would say that by far the best case could be built upon the fact that the wizarding banking system is run entirely by goblins, with big noses even!
There was a line added to the American edition (first book) that said Dead Thomas was black. It kind of messed up the scene, actually, because the British version says:
The American version says:
The American one added an extra person but didn’t change the count on the students.
IIRC Dean Thomas’ race is mentioned at his first appearance when Harry meets the other first-year Gryffindors, and then not again, so it’s easy to forget. I also seem to remember reading that that line wasn’t present in the original UK edition, but maybeim thinking of something else. Anyway, Ginny dates him for a while.
I’m not trying to catch Rowling on racism. I was just wondering.
I didn’t know she’d married a Weasley, but I remember that when George Weasley (one of the practical joker twins) needed a date for the upcoming dance, he immediately yelled, “Oi, Angelina!”
So, interracial dating is no big deal in the Wizard world.
Well, Bellatrix’ maiden name was Black; she was a cousin of Sirius Black, in fact. Did you maybe make a subconscious connection with her character’s name?
I know you don’t care about the films, but the first two actresses that portrayed Lavender Brown were black but in the later films they changed it to a white girl.