Do the Head Count: How Diverse Is the World of Harry Potter? By Brenda Velez
© 2005 DiversityInc.com Where will you be at 12:01 a.m. on July 16? If you or your children are Harry Potter fans, it's likely you'll be on a very long line at the closest bookstore waiting to pick up the sixth installment in the Harry Potter series: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. For those not in the know, Harry Potter is the story of a skinny, young boy with glasses, unruly hair and a scar on his forehead, who was forced to sleep in the small cupboard under the stairs in his aunt and uncle's house. His life is fairly unremarkable, with the exception of several unexplainable events. But this all changes on Harry's 13th birthday, when he meets a half-giant named Rubeus Hagrid, who explains that Harry is a wizard and has been accepted to the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The Harry Potter series is one of the biggest literary phenomenons in recent history. At a time when electronic entertainment reigns supreme, these books have been able to get children to turn the television off and read, and we're talking about 800-plus-page books. Although they are written for children, the series created by J.K. Rowling in a café between job interviews has turned into a body of work that is ethnically diverse and tackles a variety of social issues such as racism. Although the central charactersHarry, Ron and Hermioneare white, many of their friends, teachers, allies, mentors and acquaintances represent a variety of races and species. Based on the descriptions given by Rowling, the number of people of color (and mythical characters who we classified as "other") is greater than the United Kingdom, where the stories take place. The national 2003 U.K. census shows that people of color make up approximately 8 percent of the United Kingdom's population. Yet out of the 63 primary and secondary characters in the Harry Potter books, according to a character list at Wikipedia.com, 13 (approximately 20 percent) are either people of color or characters that fall under "other." Among the characters of color, 4.8 percent are black, another 4.8 percent are Asian, and 11.1 are mythical creatures or a combination, such as Hagrid, who is half giant and half human. In the United Kingdom, whites make up 92.1 percent of the population, Asians make up 4.4 percent, and blacks 2 percent. The remaining 1.5 percent is made up of those who are racially mixed. As in the United Kingdom, the majority of the charactersapproximately 79 percentin the books are white. But the kind of racism found in the books has nothing to do with race or ethnicity. Most characters are treated equally despite their racial background. Harry's love interest, for example, as of books three through five, has been an Asian girl in his grade named Cho Chang, and one of his most beloved mentors is a werewolf named Remus Lupin. The story created by Rowling takes place in the wizarding and muggle (non-magical people) worlds. The wizard world is full of mythical creatures such as ghosts, goblins, giants, elves, centaurs and, of course, witches and wizards. Although both worlds live side by side, the wizarding world is magically hidden from muggles as a precaution. It is generally understood that most muggles would persecute all in the wizarding world out of narrow-mindedness and fear of all things different. The few exceptions have been those who married people in the wizarding world. The wizarding world, however, is not without prejudice. There is a group of characters known as "pure bloods" who come from families that look down on marrying muggles. These characters are the villains in the series, led by Harry's nemesis, a dark wizard named Lord Voldemort, who is a half-muggle. These wizards believe themselves to be superior to everyone from either world. Their ultimate goal is to create a race of pure wizards and eliminate everyone else. Millions of readers will surely be turning pages as fast as their eyes will allow to see what comes of the impending war within the wizarding world, but with a little luck and magic, equality will prevail by the end of book seven. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com Community email addresses: Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe Digest Mode: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SciFiNoir_Lit/ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SciFiNoir_Lit/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
