With Anasasi boys, I started with the assumption that the characters were black because the legend has african origins. I think that there may be some comparison, because if you assume that the characters are straight, that's what you'll find. If you assume that they're gay, you'll find that as well.
The Buffista Book Club: the Harry Potter iteration
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***SPOILER ALERT***
Well, I just brought up the fact here that the really evil characters had French names and basically everyone tried to persuade me otherwise.
Persuasion was not my intent, ftr.
Mine either. More playing with the idea.
I was trying to talk you out of it because I think you're evil.
Well, half-evil.
Well, I am evil, but that's neither here nor there.
I just remember thinking at the time that, had I been Jewish and noticed that the most evil characters all had Jewish names, the conversation probably would have gone in a different direction.
More playing with the idea.
Which is how it was taken. The evil French thing is not something that bugs me per se, because it's a long-standing cross-channel rivalry, but, with my background, it's not going to go unnoticed either.
I was mostly amused by the one Jewish-sounding name in the book, Anthony Goldstein. We know almost nothing about him -- he's a Ravenclaw, a year younger than Harry, and friends with Michael Corner. His name gets mentioned a bunch of times, but I don't think he ever actually said anything or did anything other than being noted as being in the room.
Not many Jewish names, but I did notice the Goblins came awfully close to some old anti-semitic stereotypes. I'm not the only one who noticed. Not accusing her of anything. But it kind of makes me think that Rowling is well intentioned, but not all that well informed on diversity.
Did they have any anti-semitic traits that are actually semitic, if that makes sense? Or was it all about the money-grubbing?
Because in Jamaica that'd make it more an anti-Chinese thing.
Money grubbing, and a deep conviction that all the jewels (and I think gold) really belong to them -- so a deep hostility to the rest of the world, and some hints they have a desire to take over.
Perfect example about where you're standing. I understand that's a negative Jewish stereotype set, but Jamaican Jews aren't stereotyped that way. The money people would be Chinese instead which makes me wonder...isn't it just possible she wanted a money-grubbing species?
Of course, once you come to the place where you ascribe hard and fast positive and negative personality traits to equivalently sentient creatures, tolerance of diversity can take a nose dive.