“Hogwarts ensures the reproduction of a society that is consciously, even proudly, regressive. The closest thing to social justice advocacy is S.P.E.W., a student group founded on the radical proposition that slavery is probably wrong. Social deviants are imprisoned in a hellscape where ghouls suck all the joy from their souls. Restorative justice, of course, would make little sense in a society that takes the immutability of character as its organizing principle.
And at the heart of this society is the devastating inequality between magical and non-magical humans. Access to Hogwarts, though open to individuals of all class and creed, is policed on the basis of the distinction that constitutes the boundaries wizarding world — “you are either magical or you are not.”Education cannot make a child magical; it can only socialize and advance children who were already magical to begin with. The most successful students either become Hogwarts professors or join a bureaucracy whose explicit mandate is to obfuscate the existence of magic. Substitute the word “power” for “magic” and one wonders whether Rowling meant to write a dystopian allegory about the neoliberal state and we’ve been misreading the tone this whole time...
We can fight uncritically in Dumbledore’s Army without the troublesome worry that, no matter how well-meaning we are, we might sometimes be part of the problem. In other words, Harry Potter is a fantasy of guilt-free privilege. The extent to which we continue to collectively indulge in this fantasy should make us all a bit uncomfortable”
Remembering that sometimes sharp critique emerges from a place of love. And learning about social justice issues in the context of Harry Potter is an excellent way to learn how to see them in real life.
Related: Black hermione; genetics of Harry Potter
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