The Real Issue With Black Hermione

The issue with black Hermione is…

nothing.

Is anyone else disgusted and embarrassed by the racism black Hermione from Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has incurred?

I don’t know about you guys in your respective countries and personal social media accounts, but I’ve seen numerous people from mine publish foul, derogatory, racist comments whining about the change of ethnicity of a fictional character who embodied accepting diversity and whose skin color was not even mentioned in the books.

I have seen mostly young adults my generation laugh at how Hermione “spent too much time tanning,” “was overcooked,” “was trapped in a toaster,” “had her wand explode” or express actual vitriol such as “everything looked good until Hermione,” “they butchered the casting,” “she is so ugly now,” “I lost any enthusiasm to watch the play after seeing this,” and even aggressively stating “what the hell is this?!?!,” “OMG this is fucked up,” “Hermione is the one who’s cursed!”

Okay, screw you and your narrow-minded glutathione standards for beauty and screw you times two for your inability to hold your tongue and discipline your shallowness on social media.

I can’t believe the Harry Potter series taught you nothing about accepting diversity, spreading love and light, and fighting discriminatory hate – when the Wizarding Wars were essentially about wiping out “dirty, ugly” minorities in the magical world like mudbloods – such as black people in real life, as well YOU if you are a woman, or brown-skinned, or homosexual, or from a third-world country. All lower beings in the eyes of a white-washed world.

It’s understandable J.K. Rowling may have intended or herself visualized Hermione as white, but it has not been explicitly stated as other characters. If you want to get into specifics, Hermione’s mother is noted to be pale in the books. This doesn’t mean Mrs. Granger isn’t biracial, or Mr. Granger isn’t black, or that Hermione isn’t half african, or half dominican, or half dancing potato. There’s also the argument that on the book covers, Hermione is drawn as white. Sometimes book covers can be wrong such as in the American version when Snape was drawn with a beard which he has never been described or intended as having. Yet Rowling didn’t make a fuss about it because she didn’t think it was a big deal.

Still, people are freaking out like the second-coming of Voldemort simply at the possibility Hermione could be anything other than white.

To quote wagamamalullaby from reddit: “The less the description of character detail, the more ‘fill in the blanks’ can be applied, which everyone will do differently. Evidence suggests that Hermione wasn’t intended by the author to be a black character, but the lack of description allows such interpretations. It can be read that way if the reader chooses, as long as it isn’t contradicted by the text. If, for example, a character is described as white-skinned, and you imagine that character as black, it’s not valid (although if people want to do that, that’s fine)…

A reader can spot things that even an author had not thought of… Illustrations are not evidence, they are interpretations of the text, and the text is what is important.

It’s a hard sell to the HP crowd, but this technique is useful. Remember the last time you read a book before you saw the movie, and imagined things differently? Similar thing. You read the text in one way, and a movie shows another way. Both are valid.”

I also don’t see blondes getting nasty at movie Neville who is portrayed as brunette when he was written as blonde. TLDR: We are free to discuss the race of a fictional character we love, we are free to argue that Hermione should be white, but some people’s reaction and choice of wording to this has been downright ridiculous and gross.

By bemoaning in such a cruel manner the actress’ or character’s skin color, you are essentially saying the same thing about her that deatheaters did about book/movie Hermione – Mudblood. How dare you say “Hermione nigger!” while hypocritically hating Malfoy for calling her a mudblood?

No, your childish and immature “But Hermione and Emma Watson was always white! J.K. Rowling drew her as white!” is not an excuse.

Besides, the author has spoken,“With my experience of social media, I thought that idiots were going to idiot”:

https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/678888094339366914

So ask yourself – why are you offended by this? What does it matter if she’s white or black or red or Pygmy Puff when the story is the same? When the character is the same? When the author herself says it’s okay and thinks you’re being a racist troll? The only issue here is the shortness of your sight, as short as Dolores Umbridge’s was and I pity you.

The real Hermione Granger (plus J.K. Rowling and Emma Watson) would be disappointed in you and your hateful, insensitive, prejudiced choice of words.

And the real issue with black Hermione? Is you.