Racism in Harry Potter

Though Harry Potter may seem like your everyday wixarding childrens' book, it's underlying message means so much more as you grow. 

Starting out, the story talks about an orphaned boy who had to be raised by his abusive aunt and uncle, whom disliked him for something he had no idea about. When he finally learned who he was and where he came from, Harry started to soar through magic - though not always passing his classes. He began to learn about the world that he came from and growing in his own opinions about said world. 

One such example of this would be the matter of pureblood verus un-clean blood. I only use the term un-clean as a term to describe those who are not FULL wizard. Let me explain further:

In the wizarding world there are several types of wizard: the purebloods - those who's ancestors have been wizards since the beginning of time-, half-bloods - someone who was born of a pureblood wizard and a mud-blood, which leads me to: mud-blood - a wizard who was conceived of two muggles - or non-wizarding folk. 

These bloodlines seem to come into the story line often. Being that Harry Potter himself, was a half-blood - born of one pureblood line: the Potters, and one mud-blood line: the Evans; and his best friend Hermione herself was a mud-blood. 

Examples of this racist slur can be seen as early as the second book, when Draco Malfoy calls Hermione a "mud-blood" to her face. Now, this may not seem like it is anything of importance, but calling someone a mud-blood is the equivalent of calling an African American person the "n word". By showing this in something as trivial as a children's book, it teaching children at an early age that judging someone based on their race or blood is wrong. The reactions in the book when Malfoy calls her a mud-blood are that of what you would expect from if someone was to greatly insult someone else. Fred and George Weasley were ready to fight and Ron casts a slug-curse without a second thought. 

Racism in Harry Potter is what the entire story line is based around. Even though it may be a children's book, its events can be loosely resembled to the events of real life. Such as the case where He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, the all-time bad guy in the series, decides that the only race that should continue should be those of only pure blood. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named in this case resembles that of Hilter in WWll. He only wanted the purest lines, with blonde hair and blue eyes, and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named only wants those who's bloodlines have all been wizards before him; even though he himself was a mud-blood. 

Why Harry Potter is Still Relevant

I have grown up on the  Harry Potter series. Reading them from the day I was able to read chapter books, and going to midnight premieres from the day my mother deemed me old enough to finally stay up late enough to watch my beloved golden trio as they grow. I grew with Harry even though the series came out when I was very young. And from him, I've have grown a lot about growing into a world you knew nothing about and creating your own opinion on everything based on your own moral compass.

Now, that may seem like a bunch of fancy wording, but Harry Potter is a lot more than wizard's chess and fighting dragons. Harry teaches children some of the harder lessons in life, such as slavery, racism, and good vs evil. As we watch Harry grow we are able to grow and change with him as he learns more about the different interact parts of the Wizarding World.

Throughout many of the books, Harry is presented with things that may seem like side-story lines, but are actually life lessons and eventually come back to him at the end. An example such as this would be how during the first few books Hermione, Harry's best friend and cohort in defeating evil, defends the helpless and enslaved house-elves that pure-blood wizarding families and Hogwarts themselves even uses for cooking, cleaning, and housework. Hermione creates a group called S.P.E.W. or the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, that is dedicated to the freeing of enslaved house-elves.

The books continually show the mistreatment of elves, and how they're only granted freedom when in their master provides them with some source of clothing. Harry is only able to free his friend, Dobby the house-elf, when he tricks Lucius Malfoy into giving Dobby a sock.

Not only does the series display slavery in its most pure form, it also sheds a different light into racism - but thats a discussion for another post.