My Gripes with J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter Franchise

One thing about me, I know how to rant. A few of my friends have heard me get on a soapbox about a few things. I’m always polite and apologetic before kindly stepping off of said soapbox and resuming normal conversation. My friends find this funny and endearing. Regardless, I have had my fill of shock and awe at the response of a certain author: 

Joanne Rowling a.k.a J. K. Rowling. 

Let’s start at the beginning of what I knew about her. Yes, I read her as a child. I read all of the books and watched all of the movies from the Harry Potter series. Fantastic Beasts seemed like a cash-grab to me, but that is my opinion. This is also my blog, so here we are. 

I wasn’t interested in Harry Potter at first. My mom suggested that I read her books. I was a prolific reader even as a child, so I’m not completely sure why my mom wanted me to read her books other than she was a popular woman in fiction. At the time, this was a big deal since most popular fantasy, sci-fi, and children’s books were written by men. I was a little too young to care that much about gender politics. I was old enough to have experienced racial discrimination and to recognize it when it happens. More on this later…

Anyway, my mother bought the first two books for me and my cousin had the rest up to Goblet of Fire. Order of the Phoenix wasn’t out yet. I put the books to the side for a while with no intention of reading them. One day when I was bored, I picked one of them up and started reading. I enjoyed them and kept reading. 

I KNEW IT WAS RACIST AND KEPT READING. 

There are people that would say that they didn’t know what to call the “uncomfortable” feeling they felt while reading it. I am not going to bullsh!t anyone. I knew the book was racist. I knew the Death Eaters were modeled after the Kl@n. I found out about the actual group around age 7, so I was well versed in the dangers. I also grew up in the rural south, where they are still active and recruiting members. 

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I knew Malfoy was groomed to join them, just like the white classmates that were disrespectful bullies toward me throughout my entire time at a predominantly white high school. So when Lucius showed up just as prejudiced and frankly racist, I was not surprised. I knew that the goblins were meant to be an anti-Semetic trope. I knew the house elves were meant to represent enslaved individuals that wore sackcloth. Looking back at it makes me wonder if it was a borrowing of Roald Dahl’s work. That imagery was so apparent that it made sense for me to think J. K. Rowling is a racist human being. 

It was also set to a backdrop of a young white British boy escaping familial abuse only to be terrorized, psychologically, and physically abused by the same wizard that killed his parents on an annual basis. Oh…and let’s also add the manipulation of a secretive headmaster that was, to quote Severus, “raising him like a pig for slaughter.” 

As an adult, I can’t really see why adult people don’t criticize these adult characters more. I guess it’s because they are more consumed with the lives of fictional children. Does that sound weird? Maybe that sounds weird? I feel like that sounds weird. 

Here’s another hot take…Ron was mad that Malfoy called Hermione a mudblood, correct? It was a huge deal and if his wand hadn't back-fired, Malfoy would have been vomiting slugs into a bucket. We cheered for Ron’s efforts, even though he was not great at it. However, let me posit this…why did Ron actually hate Hermione?

Most would say it was because Hermione was a know-it-all. However, what made Hermione have that characterization? Ron grew up around witches and wizards. They all knew a lot. Could it be because Ron hated that a person with non-magical parents knew more about magic and was better at magic than he was? Was Ron a secret bigot as well? 

Gasps

Photo by DMRACREATOR • BY DANIELLA on Unsplash

No one I’ve read or listened to ever brings this up, but I’ve thought about it for a while. We don’t even touch the surface of how they treat giants in this world that can be wizards as well. The bigotry is apparent in every book. If you aren’t a pure blooded white wizard or witch of a certain class, you are going to be bullied in one way or another. 

So if a lot of the main characters were horrible people that we were supposed to believe were heroes, what does that say about the author? She finds this behavior “Okay.” We know this because in 7 books and 8 movies, they are still bigots at the end. 

The more surface layered racism is in the weird names for the non-white wizarding students (i.e. Cho Chang). Honestly, for me that was just lazy racism. Even worse was the barely sprinkled Black characters that maybe had one or two lines. Great Britain is one of the most prolific colonizer nations in Europe. Due to that colonization, its empire and even the citizens of said country are more diverse than shown on British news. However, with all of that, Rowling still couldn’t imagine a fictional world that had more than just white people in it. It’s the same problem that I have with Julia Quinn. 

There are those that say Hermione was supposed to be Black. Let me say this, white writers that write diverse characters especially during the early 2000s let you know EARLY ON that they had diverse characters. It becomes a point of pride to show they aren’t like the sh!tty writers of old. Also, the Harry Potter novels had illustrated covers and chapter headings. Also…also…the Harry Potter novels were advertised in bookstores with posters and other items. Hermione was never depicted as Black in any of them. 

Finally, Rowling took part in the casting for the Harry Potter movie series. She helped pick Harry, Ron, and Hermione especially since they were so important to the story. She didn’t pick a Black child actress because…

HERMIONE WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO BE BLACK!!!!

She didn’t read that way either, to me. She was a white girl with curly brown hair. I’ve known white girls with curly brown hair. She fit that mold. She was also smart. Not impossible for a white girl either. Curly brown hair and smart…those were her character descriptors. None of which denotes a Black character. There was no “mahogany skin” or “ebony countenance.” This was also written during the time where the term “urban” was a common substitute for “Black.” None of this was a thing. 

Photo by Javier Grixo on Unsplash

People asked her if Hermione was supposed to be Black. Rowling pandered and said “maybe,” “could be,” and “yes.” She did the same thing with the statement that Dumbledore was gay, even though there was never anything to suggest that he was in the books. The movies didn’t depict him as gay either. She pandered to keep money in her pockets as people started asking her questions about why her books lacked diversity. She threw bones at people that were scraping for crumbs.

Rowling got canceled because she’s a TERF, not because she was a racist. She is a perfect model to show that white supremacy is still a thing and is normalized. People scream she is a TERF and should be banned before saying “Oh yeah, she was a racist too.” They separate the racist art from the transphobic artist because racism we can live with but transphobia (a spinoff from white supremacy) is absolutely intolerable. 

BTW…the books are transphobic as well, ya know. Do you honestly think imagining Professor Snape in Neville’s grandmother’s clothing in order to defeat a bogart isn’t transphobic? Maybe we should find the lack of gender non-conforming individuals to be normal as well? Perhaps, you skipped those chapters. It’s fine if you did. 

Will this be my last rant about Rowling? Probably my last dedicated one. I may still trash her in another blog post as an example of sh!tty writers. She’s so easy to target in that way. I don’t read her work and haven’t watched a Harry Potter film in years, so she doesn’t normally get my money or time unless it’s in a conversation where she comes up. She’s popped up a lot lately, hence the rant.

Anyway…thanks for reading along with me. 

Until next time…Later babes…

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash