Why does anyone object to this? Unless they are racist?
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — J. K. Rowling
Mercader79 — 9 years ago(September 07, 2016 08:43 AM)
Why does anyone object to this? Unless they are racist?
What does it matter what her race is? It's never specifically referred to in the books.
It's a brand new cast after all. They're all different actors. If you object to them all being recast, that's a different thing.
I would object if she was now a boy, or now lazy, or very naughty as this would be inconsistent with the books.
But if she now wears glasses? Or had different hair? Or is a different height to the films? Or has a different skin colour?
None of these things should matter to you unless:
a) you object to everyone being recast - in which case, why not just say that?
b) you are racist
Give me three good reasons which show otherwise
Anyone? -
Otkon — 9 years ago(September 12, 2016 03:32 AM)
During the height of the crazed Harry Potter nonsense, Jo made no bones about telling the public that she had absolute control over every aspect of the franchise from its story to its characters to its multimedia adaptations. She famously reassured her snooty English base that not a single American would be cast in any of the films. And guess what? In every authorized depiction from the books to the films to book covers to illustrated versions of the stories, little Hermione Granger is said to be white or shown to be white.
You don't say that a person of color has had their face "turned white" with fear any more than you would say a Native American person's face has "turned red" with embarrassment. Or that an Asian person has "turned yellow" with cowardice. But Hermione's face "turns white" in the novel. It is actually racially insensitive to tell a black person they havb68e lost color in their face. Psychologically it imposes a demeaning lightening of their blackness. Even in a medical sense (from which this expression comes), it is simply ridiculous to use in reference to someone of color since a black person's skin tone is overwhelmingly determined by their high degree of melanin and does NOT fluctuate with vascular activity or sun exposure as it does in white people. It is hard to tell if a black person is blushing, sunburned or ashen with fear or illness by sight or by reading about it. One just doesn't use certain idioms to reference people of different appearances. If Jo envisioned Hermione as anything other than white, she should have avoided altogether any conjugation of the phrase "to turn white".
Pointing out Jo's repeated retroactive nonsense has nothing to do with being racist. I would be all for more diverse characterizations in her junk writing. If Hermione were indeed black, why not explicitly show it? There is more to being black than a darker skin color. Jo never bothered to state any of those details. Why? Because her characters are barely one-dimensional - let alone in-depth depictions of ethnicity and race. -
Mercader79 — 9 years ago(September 12, 2016 06:38 AM)
You totally miss the point.
It doesn't matter what her race is. It has no bearing whatsoever on her character. If you feel it does, please explain how.
"I would be all for more diverse characterizations in her junk writingBecause her character are barely one-dimensional"
Zzzz. And yet a) you seem to have read her extensively and b) have never written anything better.
A lot of this on here - SOUR GRAPES -
GladysOver — 9 years ago(January 05, 2017 11:49 AM)
In every authorized depiction from the books to the films to book covers to illustrated versions of the stories, little Hermione Granger is said to be white or shown to be white.
One amusing and perhaps lesser known little footnote to this silly saga is that Rowling's not just a hugely successful author but also a moderately capable artist and long before Harry Potter became such a massive success she actually drew the characters she had created.
She drew Hermione as white.
So when Rowling indulged in a bit of trite virtue-signalling during the faux casting controversy for Cursed Child by proclaiming that she never expressly stated or confirmed Hermione's ethnicity, she wasn't being entirely truthful.
As for the afomentioned controversy itself, well it was a silly overreaction to the casting of a
stage play- a medium long afforded substantial artistic license to deviate from source material, alter characters et al.
That said those of us of a more cynical disposition can't quite shake the suspicion that the whole furore had been calculatingly engineered from the very start by the team behind the play. Indeed, I rather doubt the actress cast as Hermione got the part primarily for her acting ability somehow.
A (suspected) cheap stunt then for a play that should be far above such race-baiting gimmickry.
- a medium long afforded substantial artistic license to deviate from source material, alter characters et al.