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I went off on a bit of a rant in the comment on a reblog on Tumblr, thought it should be repeated here since the connection between LJ and Twitter appears to be broken beyond repair. Link here if you're interested in the context. So here you are:
*Sigh* Neither Hermione’s race nor skin color is ever mentioned in the books, aside from one bit where she was “very brown” after being in the south of France, which could just as easily happen if she was black with lighter skin than whatever color she tanned to in France. Further, big bushy hair that can only be tamed with three hours and liberal amounts of hair potion makes more sense if she’s black. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a white person with hair like that, only heard rumors of it.
For that matter, the skin tone of Harry and the Weasleys was never mentioned either. Harry and even the Weasleys could just as easily be black, too, since 1. Harry’s hair is also wild and unmanagable. 2. There are redheaded black people with freckles. 3. Even if Rowling had specified skin color in the books, SO WHAT if someone wants them to be black? You can have the other 99 million white characters. You’re like Dudley Dursley seeing Harry with a toy he made out of sticks, you don’t want the other kids to have anything you spoiled sack of crap. 4. Why would you not want diversity? Not only is diversity absolutely necessary both for POC and for POM (people of mayonnaise) - POC so they can relate to characters, and POM so they can relate to real human beings that diversity in media exposes them to, but also: Speaking as a white person, white people are fucking boring. I was bored with white characters everywhere when I was TEN. I don’t know how other people can stand having to constantly put up with the same cookie-cutter ticky-tack white characters with the same four names and the same three personalities in every goddamn thing.
Granted, I may be biased due to the fact that, for some reason, I find it difficult to tell people of my own “race” (white people) apart (they all look more or less the same to me) but I don’t have the same problem with other races. Takes me only a few instances of seeing a POC face before I have it memorized, but it takes like 10 or more instances to tell white people apart. And the white people in media tend to be even harder to tell apart than the real thing. Entire stories have been utterly ruined for me because I can’t tell Whitey McMayonnaise and Honkey McMiracleWhip apart because they’re both blond “handsome” white men with the same exact body type and facial structure and wearing the same damn outfit, and thus I can’t follow the flipping story.
And even when I get white people’s faces figured out, their names are always John or Jane or Alice or one of the other 10 or 20 common-as-dirt white folk names, and I can never remember their damn names, which is why I prefer online exchanges on sites that don’t let people change their usernames. (The only people I have any idea who they are on this website [Tumblr] are the ones who, like me, never change their URL.)
~~~
Adding: Harry's treatment by the Dursleys also makes more sense if he's black.
*Sigh* Neither Hermione’s race nor skin color is ever mentioned in the books, aside from one bit where she was “very brown” after being in the south of France, which could just as easily happen if she was black with lighter skin than whatever color she tanned to in France. Further, big bushy hair that can only be tamed with three hours and liberal amounts of hair potion makes more sense if she’s black. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a white person with hair like that, only heard rumors of it.
For that matter, the skin tone of Harry and the Weasleys was never mentioned either. Harry and even the Weasleys could just as easily be black, too, since 1. Harry’s hair is also wild and unmanagable. 2. There are redheaded black people with freckles. 3. Even if Rowling had specified skin color in the books, SO WHAT if someone wants them to be black? You can have the other 99 million white characters. You’re like Dudley Dursley seeing Harry with a toy he made out of sticks, you don’t want the other kids to have anything you spoiled sack of crap. 4. Why would you not want diversity? Not only is diversity absolutely necessary both for POC and for POM (people of mayonnaise) - POC so they can relate to characters, and POM so they can relate to real human beings that diversity in media exposes them to, but also: Speaking as a white person, white people are fucking boring. I was bored with white characters everywhere when I was TEN. I don’t know how other people can stand having to constantly put up with the same cookie-cutter ticky-tack white characters with the same four names and the same three personalities in every goddamn thing.
Granted, I may be biased due to the fact that, for some reason, I find it difficult to tell people of my own “race” (white people) apart (they all look more or less the same to me) but I don’t have the same problem with other races. Takes me only a few instances of seeing a POC face before I have it memorized, but it takes like 10 or more instances to tell white people apart. And the white people in media tend to be even harder to tell apart than the real thing. Entire stories have been utterly ruined for me because I can’t tell Whitey McMayonnaise and Honkey McMiracleWhip apart because they’re both blond “handsome” white men with the same exact body type and facial structure and wearing the same damn outfit, and thus I can’t follow the flipping story.
And even when I get white people’s faces figured out, their names are always John or Jane or Alice or one of the other 10 or 20 common-as-dirt white folk names, and I can never remember their damn names, which is why I prefer online exchanges on sites that don’t let people change their usernames. (The only people I have any idea who they are on this website [Tumblr] are the ones who, like me, never change their URL.)
~~~
Adding: Harry's treatment by the Dursleys also makes more sense if he's black.
