deathtocapslock | Rowling Offends Native Americans

spongebending.livejournal.com posting in

I don't know if anyone on here heard about it, but Rowling is writing a new series of sorts called the History of Magic in America.

Not only does she seem to have done barely any research at all on American history (if there are any Americans on here, check it out and have a laugh!), but she also seems to have caused a bit of controversy as many Native Americans have found her portrayal of them to be backwards and offensive.

Can't say I'm surprised, I've always felt that in Potter fans could reread the books without their nostalgia goggles on they'd find the series has a lot of unfortunate implications and overall nastiness. Without the protective shield of nostalgia, it seems that people are starting to see the many of the faults of Rowling's writing that this community has been pointing out for years.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

spongebending.livejournal.com

Well, I'm not Native American so I can't speak for them, but I can think of one show that is (at least, in my experience) pretty much unanimously held up as an example of good representation in a fantasy franchise; Avatar: The Last Airbender.

The Avatar series is set in a fictional universe which is inspired by many different Asian and Native American cultures. Water Tribe of the Avatar world is pretty explicitly coded as Inuit in the show. There is, however, no European equivalent in the Avatar world; although the Water Tribe does face oppression from another culture; the Fire Nation (which is coded as East Asian).

Rowling is admittedly in a tricky situation since her Wizarding World is supposed to be set in the very world we live in today. (I think an AU would've worked best for the Potter-verse personally).
The main suggestions I'd have for Rowling is that she does proper and thorough research of American history, including Native American history and culture. The major things that people seem to be angered by were her reliance of outdated stereotypes, treating all Native tribes like a monolith culture, and disrespecting their religious practices. Most of these pitfalls, I think, can be avoided through proper research.

From:

aikaterini.livejournal.com

Yes, "Avatar the Last Airbender" is a great example. I think that what I was wondering about, though, is how to handle this issue in a modern, urban fantasy-like setting.

/(I think an AU would've worked best for the Potter-verse personally)/

By AU, do you mean if the Muggle world in the HP books was radically different from our world because of the existence of wizards? Or do you mean if the wizarding world was completely separate from the Muggle world and Harry spent all of his time in the wizarding world?

Like you said, JKR is in a bit of a bind because the Potterverse takes place in modern-day and the wizarding world, as isolated as it is, is still sometimes affected by real-world events. Many wizards, through being half-bloods or Muggle-borns, come from the Muggle world.

So, since the Muggle world in the Potter-verse is supposed to be the same as our world, sans the fact that wizards exist, then what would be the best way to explain why the genocides of the Native Americans still happened? Would it be that the Native American wizards had the same mindset as British wizards, i.e. "It's Muggle business, it's nothing to do with us, we don't want to get involved"? Would it be that the Native American wizards were far outnumbered by European Muggles (either because they also were not immune to diseases carried over by Europeans or wizards are naturally as much as a minority in the Americas as they are in Britain) and retreated to their hidden magical worlds for safety? Or would it be that Native American wizards were completely cut off from Muggles to begin with and existed in their own parallel worlds?

Edited Date: 2016-03-21 04:06 pm (UTC)

From:

spongebending.livejournal.com

Yes, I meant the former; that the existence of magic and the Wizarding World changed our world's history in certain ways. Like for example, in the Alternate Universe with Magic WWII never happened, but the Internet was never invented either. Stuff like that.

Well, before this series came out, I had my own head-canons about American wizards. I thought that the Native American wizards still lived openly among their people (much like the European wizards pre-secrecy). When the European wizards came to America they were shocked to find the Native wizards breaking secrecy and from then on were constantly trying to "convert" and "correct" their ways (leading to a lot of hostility between the two groups). In short, I figured that the white Wizards probably acted about the same as their non-magical counterparts, although, for different reasons.
The white "No-Majs" try to wipe out the Native Americans for the same reasons they did in reality (white supremacy, religious bigotry, manifest destiny); the white wizards refuse to intervene because they won't break secrecy, which enrages the Native wizards. The white wizards offer the Native wizards to live in secrecy with them and abandon their people, which the Native wizards refuse and just creates even more hostility.
Contrary to Rowling's vision, I'd imagine the wizards of America have just as many problems with racism as
the rest of their culture. I even thought, since in the Potterverse the WW is based on "old-fashioned" Britain; that the wizards of America are probably also "old-fashioned" and thus more racist then modern society is today.
(Also on a lighter note; since British wizards dress in robes and medieval style clothes, does that mean American wizards dress as Pilgrims?)

From:

sunnyskywalker

I can't imagine that there would have been much of a gulf between their opinions and their muggle neighbors' views, no. After all, they weren't officially separate from the muggle world for the first few decades of English colonization, and we see how close the communities are even after centuries of separation. A few individuals might feel differently, as in real life, because people are variable, but the group average? I'm not seeing the universal respect and friendship happening so easily... At least, not without a lot more serious worldbuilding to explain how things ended up so divergent.

And this initially porous muggle/magical boundary with increasing separation over the decades could have had all sorts of interesting consequences, especially when you factor in the supposedly longer lifespans of wizards. Maybe some families are still feuding about who sided with Britain and who with the rebels during the Revolutionary War. Heck, maybe there's still an enclave of Loyalists ruled by Britain within the geographical boundaries of the muggle USA! Or maybe the competing magical governments aren't separated by geography at all, since it matters so much less when you can teleport, and one wizarding family might be MACUSA citizens while their next-door neighbors are magical British citizens.

Or maybe something completely different happened. But pretty much anything would have been more interesting than what we got. Even what we got could have been more interesting if JKR had just done some research and created more solid foundations (and, you know, not relied on stereotypes and mashing hundreds of different cultures together and declaring that a particular religious tradition is just wrong according to her fake world's rules).

LOLing over the idea of wizards in Pilgrim hats. Someone who can draw needs to bring that to life.

From:

seductivedark.livejournal.com

Maybe your pro-Brit US wizards were the impetus behind the 'special friendship' between the US and the UK in the beginning. We'd had two wars with them, then, friends.