Totally agree. I suspect she wanted to write about black folks 
without specifically saying that they were black. Maybe it was a 
creative decision and she felt that suddenly describing someone's 
skin color would jump out at the reader ...after all she doesn't 
say "Harry is white." Maybe she felt incapable of doing an adequate 
job of making racial characters. Perhaps she didn't want to 
stereotype and so did what was easiest. Although she has made Harry 
date interracially so that's a good thing and shows her head's in the 
right place.  Maybe the Hogwarts world is the English wizard world, 
and perhaps there are other wizard worlds in other countries where 
the population isn't primarily white. 

And really, I'm beginning to think that  we really can't go demanding 
that a single author do something racial to please us. (Or do we want 
all those Stephen King magical negroes?) A writer is not a 
corporation. She is a sole person with a sole story. While large 
media enterprises have a fairness thing to adhere to, do writers owe 
every group a spot in their book? Am not sure. Should a christian 
writer include non-christians in her book?  Should a gay writer be 
forced to include straights in her book? Should blacks be forced to 
put whites in their books? If the story doesn't need this kinda 
balance, let it rest. People don't owe minorities or other majorities 
or any group to which they don't belong a place in any one work of 
art. Now, if Rowling were writing a story about a part of England -- 
London, Brixton, or Yorkshire-- that has a large minority population 
and she forgot to include the "obligatory" minority, then I'd wonder. 
But for now, let it rest.

-C

--- In [email protected], Cecil Washington 
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Give Rowling a break.  We're lucky she's not referring
> to them by racial slurs. 
> 
> All this proves is that we need to write what we want
> to read ourselves.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Cecil 
> http://www.cecilwashington.com
> 
> __________________________________________________
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