Obvious disclaimer here, any racist motive in the discussion is null and void. For those who think that they have biases to deconstruct before engaging and participating in good faith, don’t voice your opinion until you have sufficiently informed yourself on what those better equipped to discuss the topic have to say, and until you have deconstructed those biases.
Black actors have the right to interpret white characters in all forms of adaptation by principle. Snape’s whiteness in the books and the movies isn’t in itself a reason not to cast a Black actor in the TV series adaptation. We have learned better, haven’t we, since the airing of Noma Dumezweni’s Black Hermione in Cursed Child.
HBO has decided to both build “a more inclusive and racially diverse universe” and produce a Harry Potter TV series that’s even more faithful to the books than the movies were, just like any HP fan would want. You cannot fulfill the first objective if you remain 100% faithful to the books, where real-world marginalized communities remain marginalized and a section of whites is the main target of hatred in a fictional society of “evolved” magical humans overly represented by whites. It’s a book written between the 90s and the early 20s by a white author born in the 60s, what do you expect. Offering only secondary or tertiary roles to Black actors in a popular franchise isn’t real inclusivity.
I’m making this video here for those who think that Emilly-award Black actor Paapa Essiedu interpreting Snape in the incoming TV series is a bad idea in terms of representation and faithfulness to canon, to what we could draw from the saga.
I am here to show you why I think that, actually, it’s not just faithful or relevant to the story, it’s an excellent choice for the fuller interpretation of Snape’s character that HBO aims for.
In-books description
Snape is hated, mocked and vilified in the books (and by some HP fans) partially because of his physical traits. In fact, there’s reasonable doubt that the “good guys’” hatred against him was spurred by his physical traits. He’s the HP character who suffers from bias the most. Eliciting doubt and “ambiguity” on his true motives and morality becomes his main role in HP.
James and Sirius are explicitly said to have held “an old prejudice” against him. Harry’ bias against Snape is so strong he turns a blind eye to the crimes committed by his favourite teachers – McGonagall, who sent 11 yo Neville, Hermione, Draco and him in the death forest as punishment for being out of bed once, where Harry almost died; Hagrid who repeatedly fatshamed an 11 yo Muggle kid whom he explicitly tries to transform into a pig; Lupin letting Sirius break into the school for a whole year because he didn’t want to tell Dumbledore about the secret passages they used to take as teens even though he truly believed that Sirius was a maddened “wizard nazi” as they say who tried to finish the job with the Potters; Trelawney and Pince physically hurting students; Dumbledore who believes that bullies taking teacher posts are a great life experience for children’s growth. That’s just to name a few.
But Snape? Yeah, Snape saved Harry’s life like none other, but he looks evil. He’s ugly. And what makes him ugly in the narrative? What helps stir doubt on his innocence?
his big hooked nose
his oily/greasy shoulder-length black hair
his yellow crooked teeth
his sallow skin complexion + this one instance where “Snape’s sallow skin had gone the colour of sour milk”
his “long yellow finger”
his large black eyebrows
his tunnel-like black eyes
his thin lips
his overall appearance as the school’s “overgrown bat”
his association with black and darkness, culturally evoquent of danger, demonic forces, impurity and barbarism in old UK literature (“light vs dark”) (Hedwige)
Let’s look at the definition of “sallow” skin:
“of an unhealthy yellow or pale brown colour”.
And when Snape goes “pale”, his skin gets a whitened-kind of yellow. Like sour milk, you know, the thing that literally makes you gag.
Huh.
If that’s Snape’s natural skin complexion and we’re supposed to feel repelled by it, we’ve already fallen into a racist bias since the very first book. This is a guy who spends the majority of the year in a castle, in the dungeons, in the confines of Scotland, so tanning is out of the question to explain his yellow/pale brown complexion. His skin color is immediately attributed to unhealthiness, uncleanliness, to disease, together with his other physical traits, and the narrative doesn’t pull the shots back. It’s treated as a moral failure. Now, it’s still possible that Snape’s skin looks yellowish despite being white if he’s actually ill, maybe he suffers from anemia or some kind of nutriment deficiency, a blood or a skin disease, but that just makes it worse, that’s ableist with racist bias.
Snape’s hair is the butt of the joke in the books, from Fred joking about Snape fleeing from shampoo, to Sirius’ insults on this “greasy-haired kid”. Even on the Pottermore site, there’s implicit mockery of Snape because James Potter’s family became rich off Sleekeazy’s Hair Potion and it’s suggested that Snape doesn’t use that shampoo out of jealousy or spite (and not, I don’t know, because he lacked the money or was refused as a client since James Potter made him his living punching bag and wouldn’t want to lose this advantage over him).
It’s of particularly bad taste when we know that child and teenager Sev was so poor he couldn’t properly take care of his hygiene, let alone his clothing style. He was struggling to feed properly at 9-10 yo. We know he suffered from parental neglect and even violence from his father.
Two girls were swinging backward and forward, and a skinny boy was watching them from behind a clump of bushes. His black hair was overlong and his clothes were so mismatched that it looked deliberate: too short jeans, a shabby, overlarge coat that might have belonged to a grown man, an odd smocklike shirt. Harry moved closer to the boy. Snape looked no more than nine or ten years old, sallow, small, stringy.
“Haven’t been spying,” said Snape, hot and uncomfortable and dirty-haired in the bright sunlight.
And James and Sirius took that as an opportunity and an excuse to kick him around like a dog. There’s no compassion for the possibility that Snape doesn’t buy the Potters’ shampoo brand because it’s traumatic and humiliating and he doesn’t want to fill the Potters family’s vault with his own gold, only mockery.
“Wash out your mouth,” said James coldly. “Scourgify!”
“[…] I’d wash your pants if I were you, Snivellus.”
“What is that you’re wearing, anyway?” she said, pointing at Snape’s chest. “Your mum’s blouse?”
He’s not just ugly or repulsive. He’s filthy. He deserves to be punished for his dirtiness, “that awful boy from the other side of the river”.
Now, why would Snape’s hair look greasy?
Assuming his hair is actually greasy
because his hair naturally tends to get oily really fast?
skin/hair/scalp condition, hormonal imbalance?
no time to wash his hair more often?
too depressed to care about his personal looks beyond basic hygiene? (no one ever says he smells bad, according to Rowling he just smells of old leather shoes and “bitterness”)
to make a point that he values what’s inside rather than appearances?
because he never got the habit of taking more showers after a decade of childhood parental neglect?
he doesn’t care?
self-punishment?
it protects him from predators? (you never know)
more frequent showers mean too much sensory stimuli?
the available shower products give him allergic reactions?
it’s pointless since he spends his time in humid dungeons in potion fumes?
it’s more comfortable and easier to manage if he wants to keep his hair loose?
because that’s the unfortunate magical curse counterpart to Harry’s ever-ruffled hair?
…because he was the target of a curse that cannot be cancelled? a curse from James or Sirius maybe? Snape was never described with oily hair as a child, only dirty-looking. Did it happen afterward?
Or maybe his hair isn’t actually oily, it just looks like it because it’s black and shiny, and people hate Snape enough to call his hair oily on the first occasion.
Reminds me of that kid who had to switch primary school because she and her sister had frizzy hair and everyone said that they were infested with lice. Yes they were pale brown. Yes that was racist.
Rowling’s drawings
But what better way to understand what the author meant with that description of ugly, evil-looking Severus Snape, than to look at her old drawings of him.
he’s so depressed
Originally, Rowling wanted to illustrate the books by herself, so this is how we were meant to imagine him throughout all the saga. This is what Rowling and her favorite characters in HP, the good guys, call ugly.
Damn, and I was already raising my eyebrows when the first HP villain was a man hiding Voldemort under a turban he wears ever since he helped an African prince dispose of a zombie, or so he says because it’s clearly implied that he lies. Do zombies exist in HP? I thought they were called Inferi?
Several people have pointed out that Rowling’s drawings, in addition to her description of Snape, are disturbingly close to antisemitic caricatures.
There’s a special kind of irony considering Snape’s story and the central HP theme of fighting fascism. Wasn’t Rowling called out for antisemitism lately?
We could imagine that Snape has these physical traits because he’s Rom, Eastern or Central European, Indian, South Asian, Turkish or Arabic in general, Hebrew, Hispanic or Latino, etc.
Would you call that above, ugly and mean-looking? I mean, Snape shares a significant amount of traits there, and lots of people who hate Snape love to mock his physical traits, so you agree that this is something you find unattractive, right? something worthy to be bullied for?
Why do you think lookism is bad? Who do you think body-shaming disproportionately affects?
“Ugly” is a loaded word. I can say that someone is “not conventionally attractive”, that “I do not find them personally attractive” or “beautiful”, but there’s a line crossed when you call them ugly.
It’s dehumanizing, stigmatizing, it’s a tool of oppression designed to set and enforce what’s acceptable or what should be punished, in a society that as a general rule favors non-disabled, disease-free, upper class, aesthetically-christian, cishet white males. Knowingly or not, intentionally or not, whenever you call someone ugly, you’re participating in a form of violence that’s impregnated with bigotry.
Take the Bogdanoff brothers. I cannot allow myself to call them ugly; my empathy makes me imagine with horror what they must have gone through; I can suspect there’s a genetic condition behind it so that’d make it ableist. Calling them ugly borrows from the same mindset that used to stigmatize people like me on account of failure/refusal to perform femininity and notably the way society wants it. And like the Bogdanoff brothers, even if I had wanted that female gender role, I’d basically be required to undergo plastic surgery because my ethnicity traits made me undesirable however hard I tried. Beauty standards transform our body, insidiously, forcefully, against reason, against our consent; setting unrealistic goals to trap people into tight little boxes.
Snape was punished for how he looked then punished for not giving in. He’s demeaned in-universe, through Harry’s eyes and by the narrative. He’s the only character who gets to be celebrated as a hero in spite of his unconventional attractiveness, unflinching to eurocentric beauty standards.
So why are you saying that Snape can’t be Black if he’s ugly? as though Black people do not have the right to be “ugly”? Dunno about you but that reminds me of that quote about sexism, where a man can be anything and loved, but women only get to be strong.
By the way do you remember that trend where good witches were fair-skinned, red-haired, green-eyed and in a cute/sexy attire whereas the bad witches were an antisemitic caricature with actual green skin? That’s Lily / Severus aesthetic.
No wonder Rowling made Harry attracted to Lily. I mean Ginny.
ewww
Snape was in majority based on John Nettleship, Rowling’s ex chemistry teacher. From behind, the resemblance is evident.
But from the front…
He looks nothing like the Snape Rowling drew.
So Rowling took John Nettleship’s overall appearance and, because this man was too handsome and sympathetic-looking for her narrative, decided that the best way to convey doubt on his true standing in the war, whether he’s actually good or evil, and overall incite hatred, the best way to depict what she qualifies one of the worst bullies of a teacher, one that’s recurrently hated and accused throughout all the saga unfairly – an enemy more personal to Harry than Voldemort himself – is by drawing his face like this.
It gets worse.
Books illustrations
Do you remember the first Harry Potter books, illustrated by Mary Grandpré? This is Snape.
So uh… Jafar, basically. With a goatee, a beard style repeatedly associated with Satan.
That doesn’t look like your typical nazi white supremacist.
Harry Potter Trading Card Game
In 2001, an HP trading card game was released to coincide with the airing of the first HP movie, the second film following the next year. The book Goblet of Fire had been published in 2000, and we have to wait until 2003 for Order of the Phoenix, where the HP trading card game was discontinued.
So this was during the part of the saga where Snape was globally written as a loathable character who may also betray the protagonist to join Voldemort back. Before Alan Rickman’s interpretation of the character became positively iconic.
It was before we knew for sure that Snape was on Harry’s side all along. A complex, flawed, tragic, deeply human hero that everybody was wrong about.
Snape before they realized that he could become a popular, profitable character:
Well I guess he looks swaggy here. With his black nail polish….
Oh gosh is that Snape’s leg?
By the way here’s James Potter – I mean, Harry Potter.
Never knew that his mom’s eyes came with full eye make-up; we all know that’s how women’s eyes look naturally!
HP1 on Playstation 2 features a Snape that respects the books’ physical description without making a caricature of him. Harry might think he’s ugly but to the player Snape’s got a charm. He’s more likeable too. Unfortunately the plot has been nonsensically remodeled. The Trio thinks that Snape tried to kill Harry yet they believe him unquestionably when he says that Dumbledore’s absent, sure.
« And so should you be. »
As PS PS1 Snape says. Smooth voice as always.
Unlike HP3 on the same console where Snape’s caught COVID and coughs his lungs out every time he catches you out of bed. He sounds old, it sounds disgusting, your lizard brain would rather bolt outta there rather than catch a potentially lethal air-borne disease. It’s a videogame’s shortcut to branding him as a bad guy.
Is that why he’s got a greenish tint on his skin now?
Takeaway of Earliest Representations
So Snape is darker skinned than the protagonists plus bears a facial structure that violates the rules of european male attractiveness. Not for positive racial representation of course. Like many antagonists and villains in HP, he’s textually and visually coined “evil” because of his looks. These looks.
The physical features that Snape possesses, like his sallow skin, big hooked nose and oily-looking black hair, are deemed unattractive. Enough that he’s the target of body-shaming throughout all of his life, throughout all the saga – a target of violence in school because he’s “ugly”.
“Slimy, oily, greasy-haired kid, he was,” Sirius added, and Harry and Ron grinned at each other.
“[…] it was just one of those things, you can understand that, can’t you? I think James was everything Snape wanted to be — he was popular, he was good at Quidditch, good at pretty much everything. And Snape was just this little oddball who was up to his eyes in the Dark Arts and James — whatever else he may have appeared to you, Harry — always hated the Dark Arts.”
So basically Snape’s an autist with a specific interest in Dark Arts and it triggered your predatory instincts. You’re not a safe person.
Someone please define what Dark Arts are and why they’re intrinsically evil unlike non-Dark magic again?
“[…] At least Stun if you aren’t prepared to kill!”
“We were hundreds of feet up! Stan’s not himself and if I stunned him and he’d fallen, he’d have died the same as if I’d used Avada Kedavra!!
Right.
Fun fact: Sirius doubted that Snape could have ever been a Death Eater up till the end of Harry’s 4th year. He also never says that Snape called people Mudbloods left and right or that it was the reason they targeted him. Bullying him had nothing to do with his political beliefs.
Sirius stared at the cave wall, then made a grimace of frustration. “There’s still the fact that Dumbledore trusts Snape, and I know Dumbledore trusts where a lot of other people wouldn’t, but I just can’t see him letting Snape teach at Hogwarts if he’d ever worked for Voldemort.”
This is the character that Rowling hates, that she meant us to hate, despite his pre-determined moral ambiguity on the hero/villain spectrum. The character whose lifelong sacrifice and redemption will never be enough to unambiguously call him a hero. This is the character that she constantly ducks on in her books, who was never given justice. Her favs’ favorite punching bag and scapegoat, whose morality was saved because he loved a white girl standing as the Virgin Mary, loved her enough to waste his life away in her name, to save the legacy of her true chosen one. Lily is truly a saint for giving him a chance, for having blessed that ungrateful boy with her attention when he was so lowly and undeserving.
“And you’re being really ungrateful. I heard what happened the other night. You went sneaking down that tunnel by the Whomping Willow, and James Potter saved you from whatever’s down there—”
Snape’s whole face contorted and he spluttered, “Saved? Saved? You think he was playing the hero? He was saving his neck and his friends’ too!
When, to Rowling’s surprise, Snape started to get love from the fans, never again was he artistically depicted like that. Snape, in his visual representation and despite the books perpetuating his malicious physical depiction, has been kind of whitewashed. It made him more loveable, popular, more apt to elicit the benefit of the doubt on his morality, and more palatable for the 2000s. Alan Rickman was more trending anyway. Bless him, he was an excellent Snape, he deserves the merit, but at what cost.
In-world Consistency of Racial Allegory
It’s neither “problematic” nor misleading that a Black Snape would join Voldemort. Snape was a Muggleborn Halfblood who joined an anti Muggle hate group that started to encompass Muggle-borns but also Halfbloods. Take wizard supremacy as a direct equivalent to white supremacy and you round back to POC Snape joining a racist hate group. Take it as a direct equivalent to antisemitism and you get a Jew or a “Mischling” Snape joining an antisemitic hate group.
The only race color blindness there is that of remaining blind to Snape’s POC coding.
It was there all along. You just never realized it.
Any member of a marginalized community can be a bigot, including against their own community!
Blaize Zabini is a pureblooded Black Slytherin student and
« I wouldn’t touch a filthy blood traitor like her whatever she looked like.”
he says about Ginny.
Ever heard of Kanye West?
Of class traitors and internalized bigotry?
Black people, queer people, persecuted minorities in general, voting for Trump, a contemporary Hitler?
Sheer stupidity and ignorance lead people to support loudly proud fascists. Countless people have realized that they were hired on DEI. Women, veterans, disabled people… who voted for the Face-Eating Leopards Party.
The bar is low guys. It’s a key mark of ignorance in social justice to think that only overtly-violent white male supremacists can be part of a fascist faction or the wider spectrum. You gotta get comfortable with the fact that the world is not so neatly cut out.
Casting choice
Some fans are mainly pissed off with the Essiedu casting because they believe Rowling was behind that decision. I don’t believe it was the case. If it was, depending on how it turns out, she might only highlight the failures in her story even more.
There’s something about pretending that a Black actor can’t have agency in their casting choices – had to be a white woman’s choice! yet relentlessly bullying him online till he turns his account private to protect himself….
I also don’t believe HBO’s casting choice was made with malicious intent. Snape is popular, he’s incredibly loved to this day, even Rowling knows that. That’s what got us Cursed Child Snape, Hogwarts Mystery Snape and HP Magic Awakened Snape. Choosing a prestigious, handsome Black actor for Snape in a TV series that purposefully aims for more diversity and representation, only to assassinate this character, doesn’t make sense, not even on a profit-oriented standpoint. It’s not out of the realm of possibility, I hope they won’t butcher his character, but the casting choice in itself isn’t the problem.
Sensitive racial representation does not mean Black people can only be good or neutral or beautiful, as it establishes that the only bad guys that we can accept, love and play the devil’s advocate with, are white people while evil Black characters are so not loveable they cannot exist. It’s an unrealistic expectation for POC to be morally irreproachable; nobody is exempt from bigotry. It’s the same extremist logic as racists that fails to see POC as humans, only this time they’re saints rather than demons. It contributes to the harmful culture of the perfect victim, fetishisation as another expression of bigotry, the stunting of tolerance and open-mindedness, the attribution of rights based on subjective appreciability rather than impartial respect of non-derogable human rights, and internalized bigotry.
You end up with a phenomenon of marginalized people enforcing a stereotype of being cute/lower/helpless/harmless onto themselves just so their rights can be respected, and what a can of worms that becomes.
Besides if HBO follows their guidelines for racial inclusivity, Snape won’t be the only character role taken by a POC actor (see: Arabella Stanton).
Oh my fucking god I am laughing so hard!! Because. You see. I was fighting in the trenches of poc!Snape for the longest time, and I still maintain that in the metatextual context of how Rowling used Gothic shorthands, Snape in the original text is not intentionally, but very much unintentionally a poc character. I made an entire post about this back in the day, which still circulates.
That being said, this was one of those things which were very interesting to engage in the fandom works, but absolutely will not be a good idea for anyone who is trying to make an official adaptation which also sticks to Rowling’s original vision.
and please PLEASE universe. I’m begging on my hands and knees, I NEED THIS TO HAPPEN. It’s going to be SO FUCKING FUNNY!!! I need this to happen while they also adapt Snape’s worst memory word for word from the book!!
Nobody will be happy!! Marauders fans will not like the aesthetics of their faves being rich white kids who sexually assault a black, poor, kid in a manner reminscent of a lynching scene. The Snapewife type fans who were into Snape as this byronically tragic dark romantic hero will hate the idea of him being black. Fandom will be stuck in a loop where they won’t woobify him (because he’s black) but also can’t openly hate and bash him for being a neo-nazi incel like they want to (because he’s black).
Please. Black Hermione and black Snape, and all the rest of the cast is white. While the keep the S.P.E.W storyline and James Potter tormenting Snape because « it’s more the fact that he exists, you know » as perfect textual recreations. That’s all I’m asking for!
I WANT CHAOS!!!!
edit* Fuck I just realised that this is a casting which would gift us the most incredible scene in TV history in a long time, where Lily Evans (a white woman) sees Severus Snape (a black man) being hung upside down and choked by Marauders (a gang of rich white kids) and goes « I can’t help him!! He called me a racial slur!! »
Ah true. But that’s the problem with Rowling.
Narrative Hypocrisy
The Harry Potter saga poorly handled the subject of discrimination.
Shortcomings are plenty and the unchecked hypocrisy goes through the roof. The very message of the first book is: Don’t judge a book by its cover, don’t make unfounded assumptions, be careful of the biases you construct based on how people look. Yet moral value and character appreciability in the saga are correlated to looks.
Harry who’s “pure of heart” and has Hermione as a moral compass fails so badly to integrate that lesson that he suspects Snape of criminal motives without hard proof through the whole 7 books.
Fat Dudley is compared to a whale as a baby, he gets a pig tail as a kid. In the movies they add Dudley eating Harry’s cake behind his back with his bare hands to justify Hagrid’s dehumanizing retaliation. Aunt Marge inflates like a balloon and floats away.
Crabbe and Goyle- based Polyjuice Potions taste disgusting, while Harry’s is golden and delicious, for all the evil and mistakes he commits.
Lily grew up privileged, closer in social status to James (peak rich white kid) than Severus (the lowest of the low). A posh girl by all accounts, whose Muggle origins serve to cancel any consideration of her own biases, her own agency in a system that benefits her over others.
She looked affronted.
“That’s not a very nice thing to say to somebody!”
She turned, nose in the air, and marched off toward her sister.
« And I’d wash your pants if I were you, Snivellus.”
Her Muggle-born-ness is embraced as it gives hope in a society that’s forced to breed with Muggles to avoid extinction, such a great opportunity to restore the healthy shine of wizardkind! Her Muggle heritage is shut down as she’s fully integrated in wizard society: it does not bother, it does not matter. She marries a Pureblood, and not any other: the pureblooded heir of one of the oldest, wealthiest, most powerful and reputed families in Wizarding Britain. She’s one of the Potters now.
Lily’s a Muggle-born who (almost) passes as a Pureblood, and because she’s also middle-class, conventionally-attractive (dare I say stunning!) by eurocentric beauty standards and magically-gifted she becomes all the more desirable.
ES: Was James the only one who had romantic feelings for Lily?
JKR: No. [Pause.] She was like Ginny, she was a popular girl.
Her Muggle-born status serves as a convenient excuse for a middle-class English white woman to pretend she’s having it just as hard as a Jew or a POC. This Muggle-born white woman becomes a devoted stay-at-home mother at age 19: a perfect christian idol. Through both Watsonian and Doylian lenses, in western culture, her nature as a young and pregnant, Muggle-born white woman makes her inherently innocent and pure. She beholds unquestioned moral high-ground, inherent rightfulness, the status of a saint who can’t do no wrong. Lily the Muggle-born, the gorgeous eternally-young white mother: the archetype of the perfect victim, sacralized motherhood, the sacrificial angel, the magic Virgin Mary.
Lily -> « The lily has always been the symbol of fertility and purity, and in Christianity it symbolizes the Immaculate Conception. » (Wikipedia)
Evans -> « evangelical » ~ « angel”
Her very blood contains pearls of goodness per JKR’s comments, in a book about fighting prejudice based on supposed blood purity.
Having taken Harry’s blood into himself, Voldemort is keeping alive Lily’s protective power over Harry. So Voldemort himself acts almost like a Horcrux for Harry – except that the power of Lily’s sacrifice is a positive force that not only continues to tether Harry to life, but gives Voldemort himself one last chance (Dumbledore refers to this last hope in chapter 35). Voldemort has unwittingly put a few drops of goodness back inside himself; if he had repented, he could have been healed more deeply than anyone would have supposed. But, of course, he refused to feel remorse.
The Marauders are good-looking, they get a pass on what they did to Snape, they’ve got such bright futures ahead of them! Snape’s memories are lies fabricated to ruin the Marauders’ popularity just because this miserable weirdo hates them out of jealousy for their sheer coolness! They were the centerpiece of the Order of the Phoenix, look how cool they are wearing those Golden Phoenix-adorned T shirts, they look like athletic rock superstars! Stupid fat Muggle cop who pulled up to those white guys (for once?), only Harry gets to be a cop. Only James gets to waterboard the filthy outsider with soap.
James inherited so much gold from his family he never had to work, but don’t be mistaken! His family earned their fortune through hard work and genius for generations, we owe them the scientific breakthroughs that shaped our society and today’s comfort of living! They’re the Good Billionaires. [pottermore potter family screenshot + Elon Musk]
James belongs to the right sort of people by virtue of being a Potter. Everybody knows the Potters, they’re a good family, a desirable family. James is Good Inside ™, he deserves his birth inheritances: perpetuating the traditions of the Potter lineage, he proves his nobility of heart as he chooses Gryffindor and marries the local most fuckable Muggle-born girl in the school, Lily Evans, Snape’s only friend, Snape who defied him and that James sexually jalousied, how can Lily have a male friend outside of his gang [Lupin didn’t compete with James over Lily quote Accio quotes], how can it be that Snape and how dare he –
James cannot be a bigot!
“What?” yelped James. “I’d NEVER call you a — you-know-what!”
(Typical response from a guy so privileged he thinks that not saying slurs is enough not to be racist)
Muggles and Wizards are equal… in theory. In practice they’re the harmless, helpless, bothersome, imbecilic and oblivious lessers. Wizards did them a favor retreating from society because Muggles were just burning each other up when they tried hunting them down. The very term “Muggle” means “gullible, foolish, loveable”.
julesrbf: Where did you come up with the word « muggle »? JK Rowling replies -> I was looking for a word that suggested both foolishness and loveability. The word ‘mug’ came to mind, for somebody gullible, and then I softened it. I think ‘muggle’ sounds quite cuddly. I didn’t know that the word ‘muggle’ had been used as drug slang at that point… ah well.
They’re the object of the good guys’ infantilization, a token for virtue-signaling, as especially seen in the case of Arthur Weasley. The Head of the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office, who doesn’t know what’s a rubber duck for.
« Fascinating, Ingenious, really how many ways Muggles have found ways of getting along without magic. »
Jacob from Rowling’s next HP-themed series is a sidekick and the series’ comic relief. Look at him, such a cute idiot.
Rowling gives any excuse to make Muggle/Wizard cohabitation inconceivable
Calliope: Are the Muggle and Magical worlds ever going to be rejoined?
JK Rowling replies -> No, the breach was final, although as book six shows, the Muggles are noticing more and more odd happenings now that Voldemort’s back.
I decided that, broadly speaking, wizards would have the power to correct or override ‘mundane’ nature, but not ‘magical’ nature. Therefore, a wizard could catch anything a Muggle might catch, but he could cure all of it; he would also comfortably survive a scorpion sting that might kill a Muggle, whereas he might die if bitten by a Venomous Tentacula.
“All those substitutes for magic Muggles use — electricity, computers, and radar, and all those things — they all go haywire around Hogwarts, there’s too much magic in the air.
A magic gene is what justifies the all-encompassing superiority of wizards over muggles that’s so enviable, so desirable but forever out-of-reach, you poor Muggles.
…
House Elves.
Pleasure in inducing jealousy over undefeated domination and bitterness over an unfair system that benefits the Blessed by Birth is a recurrent aspect of Rowling’s writings.
How about a new canon where modern Muggles become Self-Made Mages by ingesting or injecting themselves with the magic gene they found and mass produced, and then start breaking down the wizards’ world order? I’m sure miss TERF fascist wouldn’t like that. [insert « Before Lights Out » from Attack on Titan]
Magic turned into science for war.
POC-coding
Severus Snape is more than a Halfblood. Because his father, his grandparents from his dad’s side and potentially from his mother’s side are Muggles, he is also Muggle-born. In both cases, he is a Mudblood.
A Muggleborn Halfblood like Snape is an abomination in the eyes of wizard supremacy: the product of the union between a blood traitor and a Muggle. An error of the natural order, a break of rules, a taint of magical blood. Wizard supremacy would then target Severus and his parents. He’s spared yes, after becoming Lucius’ lapdog and Voldemort’s pet spy.
Several parallels were made between Harry and Severus vs Draco and James, the latter also being paralleled with Dudley, with the Death Eaters at the World Cup, as well as Voldemort during SWM and through baby Harry’s eyes. But unlike Snape, Harry is hardly disadvantaged by his blood status.
Harry is a pureblood. His maternal grandparents may provide him the status of Halfblood, but as the offspring of two well-respected wizards, one of whom is the rich descendant of an ancestral line of purebloods, he’s undoubtedly pureblooded in both “genetics” and social status.
“Viltrumite DNA is so pure you’re nearly full-blooded.” (Invincible)
Oliver isn’t granted the same privilege because his visible “race” is unlike other (near-)Viltrumites.
Harry doesn’t have to worry about his innate magical prowess: Lily the Muggle-born was one of the most magically proficient witches of her time. She flies by age 9 without a broom.
“Now, yer mum an’ dad were as good a witch an’ wizard as I ever knew. Head boy an’ girl at Hogwarts in their day! Suppose the myst’ry is why You-Know- Who never tried to get ’em on his side before…
Draco’s wizard racism focuses on Harry’s mother, not Harry himself. When he gets insulted on account of being a Halfblood, the issue is resolved not because Muggles are equal to Wizards, but because Lily proved she was better at being a witch than most. She’s shaken off her Muggle-ness and earned her place in wizarding society. She’s the only Muggle-born that Voldemort asks to join him. That’s how Harry can claim back his legitimacy, a whole wizard on equal step with Draco. No, above him: Harry is a living legend worshipped throughout the whole world, his name was written down in History books when he was just a baby like a future king. Draco was taught about Harry Potter before Harry had any idea that wizards existed and that each of them oweshim their life.
‘Yer not from a Muggle family. If he’d known who yeh were – he’s grown up knowin’ yer name if his parents are wizardin’ folk – you saw ’em in the Leaky Cauldron. Anyway, what does he know about it, some o’ the best I ever saw were the only ones with magic in ’em in a long line o’ Muggles – look at yer mum!
Harry’s a near perfect physical copy of his pureblood father. People see the famous James Potter reborn when they look at him. In a colourism transposition, with Muggles as Black and Pureblooded Wizards as white, Harry is the white son of an interracial union between a white man and a brown woman (brown rather than black ‘cause Lily is clearly a witch); Harry’s most captivating, most desirable physical trait, the only one that he takes from his brown mother, are her iconic bright green eyes, not his father’s hazel ones. They serve to perfect him into an embodiment of the white knight in shining armor.
He inherits all his parents’ prestige and unlike James Potter he accesses unprecedented worldwide popularity as the Boy Who Lived, granted to him thanks to a Muggleborn’s life sacrifice. Lily is hardly mentioned in the magical world of course, it’s Harry’s inherent nature to kaboom the Dark Lord. He’s just born like that.
Harry lives the life of a Pureblood suffering from anti-wizard discrimination by Muggles and his Halfblooded-ness is widely public only as much as it reminds everyone that the baby born between an exceptionally gifted Muggle-born and a Pureblood aristocrat gave wizard Jesus.
And then we come to Harry. Our hero. At first look, he appears to be the underdog fighting against the unjust establishment of the wizarding world. However, if one takes a closer look at the story, Harry Potter is not an underdog at all.
In the beginning of the story, he acquires a great inheritance from his exceedingly wealthy parents. (Philosopher’s Stone p.85) In every other character exceeding wealth seems to be a negative trait, but curiously Harry’s status as an heir to a fortune is never properly addressed in relation to Harry’s moral character. Harry is also a son of esteemed and powerful magical parents, both highly regarded in the wizarding society. From his father’s side, Harry can claim a connection to an old pureblood house, making him part of the pureblood wizarding establishment. Both the wealth and the bloodline inherited from the Potter family guarantees a place in the upper class of the magical society for young Harry. Even the extremely racist Draco Malfoy in the first book seems eager to make friends with Harry. (Philosopher’s Stone p.120). It is only Voldemort who has robbed him of his natural heritage and privileges and forced him into hiding with his brutish and cruel (muggle) relatives.
The story of Harry Potter is not of someone who fights for acceptance, but of someone who returns to his rightful place on top of the wizarding society. Characters who do not naturally have this privilege, gain prestige by being helpful and loyal to Harry. It is a deliberate choice by Rowling to make Harry a pureblood fighting for the rights of muggleborns and those lower than him in the wizarding societal ladder. He is the archetypical English gentleman hero, because he has both the privilege and the proper character to carry that privilege. Voldemort, Malfoy, and other “dark-siders” from the pureblood establishment have abused this privilege and are therefore unworthy of it.
Another important part of Harry’s character is that all his powers and abilities that help him champion against Voldemort are either inherited or inherent. Harry does no need to labour for his victory. His mother gives him “blood-protection”, his father and mentors give him magical items to help him on his journey, and he simply has skills that others don’t. His flying abilities making themselves known the first time he hops on a broom, and his inexplicable talent to resist the imperio-curse is never explained except with “a strong heart”. What he is good at, he doesn’t need to work for, and what he is not good at, he never improves on. If there is something he doesn’t have the innate talent for, he has friends who will do it for him. When Snape claimed that all of Harry’s successes were due to luck and more talented friends… he wasn’t wrong. And the kicker is, that that’s the point. Harry’s main strength is the fact that he is good at networking and having a brave heart. That is the ideal that thousands of young Englishmen tried to mould themselves into during the imperial days.
Harry is artificially trapped by poverty; the Dursleys do not lack (they are squarely middle class) but their behaviour causes Harry to lack. However, this is fixed for Harry as soon as he is informed that he is special – he isn’t simply told that he is a wizard, but he’s shown that he is a rich wizard with a vault full of gold.
A nobody like Snape climbs the social ladder through servitude. He’s called a pet and lapdog repeatedly: for Lily, the Malfoys, Voldemort, Dumbledore, Harry himself of course. He’s killed when he’s served his purpose.
Dumbledore asked Snape to euthanize him knowing it would lead Voldemort to murder him for the Elder Wand’s loyalty.
“But you expected [Voldemort] to go after the wand?”
“I have been sure that he would try, ever since your wand beat Voldemort’s in the graveyard of Little Hangleton. At first, he was afraid that you had conquered him by superior skill. Once he had kidnapped Ollivander, however, he discovered the existence of the twin cores. He thought that explained everything. Yet the borrowed wand did no better against yours! So Voldemort, instead of asking himself what quality it was in you that had made your wand so strong, what gift you possessed that he did not, naturally set out to find the one wand that, they said, would beat any other. For him, the Elder Wand has become an obsession to rival his obsession with you. He believes that the Elder Wand removes his last weakness and makes him truly invincible. Poor Severus….”
“If you planned your death with Snape, you meant him to end up with the Elder Wand, didn’t you?”
“I admit that was my intention,” said Dumbledore, “but it did not work as I had intended, did it?
So Dumbledore paints a target on his back, Lucius sends him to the Shrieking Shack, where he dies by Voldemort’s pet snake, ultimately sacrificing his life for Harry’s survival in Lily’s name. For a world that would never accept him.
“You’ve been raising him like a pig for slaughter.”
← the pig for slaughter
Snape owes his life to James like he’s his slave even after his death. James is entitled to do anything to him, he owns him, “The problem is that he exists, if you know what I mean.”
“You are determined to hate him, […] you have inherited an old prejudice.”
And after the 7th book reveal, Snape owing his entire life to the heir. Because of James, but especially because of Lily, to whom he must repent for his Sins through a lifelong sacrifice, a lifetime of servitude and the ultimate proof of loyalty: death. His exceptional services are taken for granted; worse, they’re a due. He deserves no thanks, no respect, no reward or acknowledgement; no matter what he does, it’ll never change his nature as the Sinner. In Rowling’s eyes, he is redeemed not because
“Lately, only those whom I could not save.”
but because he loved The Virgin Lily.
Did you know that Snivellus in French is “Servilus”?
Snape‘s character is defined by his hatred of the unfairness of life and his attempts to defy it. It’s turned for jokes: “Snape, brooding on the unfairness of life”. The pain of social awareness is branded “bitterness” of which he literally stinks.
Snape’s got a grudge, he’s jealous. He’s the loser of the story.
When Snape works to reestablish equity, it’s all unfair; when the narratives’ favorites benefit from favoritism, it’s all rightful.
Snape’s an enemy since he tries to punish Harry for breaking rules or to prevent him from accessing privileges. The most unfair HP character is the guy who’s too concerned about making things right because it bars Harry’s way. McGonagall and Dumbledore are justified but not Snape because it’s not his right or place.
If Snape says that Harry’s letting his fame get to his head, that he benefits from special treatment – he’s lying, it can’t be true, that’s different, Harry’s a good guy with all the right reasons to deserve special treatment.
Harry is the Messiah of the Wizards, the Dark Lord’s Doom, The Prophesied Chosen One, a man-god amongst mortals! because
He can love. The inherited ability of social animals shared by 99% of the human population. but He is Different ™.
AND his mom loved him. Which is a birth privilege.
“You are protected, in short, by your ability to love!” said Dumbledore loudly. “The only protection that can possibly work against the lure of power like Voldemort’s! In spite of all the temptation you have endured, all the suffering, you remain pure of heart, just as pure as you were at the age of eleven
Sure Dumby:
Harry disregarded this; he felt a savage pleasure in blaming Snape, it seemed to be easing his own sense of dreadful guilt, and he wanted to hear Dumbledore agree with him.
Then:
when you stared into a mirror that reflected your heart’s desire, and it showed you only the way to thwart Lord Voldemort, and not immortality or riches. Harry, have you any idea how few wizards could have seen what you saw in that mirror? Voldemort should have known then what he was dealing with, but he did not!
To be born in a loving family? Well shit.
Hermione got a taste of Snape’s experience with unfairness and complacency during the SPEW arc. She confronted the reality that if one’s friends aren’t directly impacted by a systemic issue they’ll defend the status quo, especially if it benefits them; they will choose to remain ignorant, enforce “anti-politism” as a social rule, make it clear that their empathy is conditional and selective, that they fight for equality only as long as it makes them feel Special ™ .
The logic applied to House Elves’ inherent and immutable nature as slaves is the exact same that fueled the worldwide subjugation of Black people and women: it’s their nature, the natural order, and in their own interests. That’s the colonialist’s mindset. The logic of the predator: “Your inherent nature is that of my prey, your sole reason to exist is to serve me however I want it”.
“Winky is a disgraced elf, but Winky is not yet getting paid!” she squeaked. “Winky is not sunk so low as that! Winky is properly ashamed of being freed!” […]
“Can’t house-elves speak their minds about their masters, then?” Harry asked.
“Oh no, sir, no,” said Dobby, looking suddenly serious. “’Tis part of the house-elf’s enslavement, sir. We keeps their secrets and our silence, sir. We upholds the family’s honor, and we never speaks ill of them —
Unsurprisingly Rowling had no problem making it an established rule of her fantasy. She loves a species of slaves. She loves writing a minstrel show.
Dobby’s brown by the way… and ugly, for some reason. And he speaks like a child, an illiterate:
“Least I could do, Dobby,” said Harry, grinning. “Just promise never to try and save my life again.”
The elf’s ugly brown face split suddenly into a wide, toothy smile.
Hermione becomes the naive, stupid, insensible social justice warrior, a symbolic punching bag for readers who share the same mindset. Just like for Snape, Rowling finds comical the distress of challenging injustice even if it means standing alone against the world. And unlike Neville, Hermione’s never rewarded for standing up against her friends. While Neville proves his loyalty to Gryffindor House, Hermione is a threat to the social order. Turns out the House Elves are ungrateful, they don’t want her help, all the more reason to stop caring for their rights. The last chapter of Harry’s 7th year concludes on slave Kreacher making Harry Potter a sandwich.
All was well.
Harry Potter is a British imperialistic, colonialistic and intrinsically racist series
Rowling wanted a series that didn’t deal with real-life racism. And so she created a new form of racism based on blood purity, based on the origins of a mage. She failed grossly; Harry Potter is a prime example, a concretized fantasy, of British imperialism and colonialism. This post explains it all:
The books are riddled with racist stereotypes, unacknowledged “Muggle-type” racism and cringe sentences. Together, they form a pattern of “WASP” supremacy.
The Houses are an institutionalized, systemic method that, let’s say it, determines who are the good guys, the bad guys, the misguided ones and the lame ones.
The good House Gryffindor’s core value is chivalry and nobility (“of heart”). Literal glorification of the white knight in shining armor. The reader identifies with Harry, the hero with a “saving-people thing”, because Harry is in a position of privilege and so is the target audience.
The first villain hides Voldemort under his turban. We’re not told that Quirrell is arab, but we’re also not told he isn’t. For those who read the books before watching the movies, what image of Quirrell came to mind when you read this?
The whole Snape plot is literally that he’s presumed to be a terrorist and a child-killer because he’s “ugly” and “evil-looking”, because he’s the Head of the evil Slytherin House, and because he dares not to grant Harry his due privileges like the other teachers. The first book concludes that Snape’s heroism isn’t heroism after all, he’s expected, forced, to put himself in mortal danger to save the child of his bully, because he owes his life to the Potter family like a slave even after the parents’ death ever since James saved his life from his own best friend’s murder attempt. Note that the relentless, prejudice-based bullying Snape suffered from James and Sirius isn’t mentioned: it’s undermined if not left unsaid because it would tarnish the good guys’ image, make them controversial historical figures, who weren’t as great as society says (a phenomenon described in books such as “En bon pères de famille” by Rose Lamy). We wouldn’t want the literal statue of James Potter with his wife to be removed, right?
Rowling wrote the story of the Potter family as one that, for centuries, fought against anti-Muggle discrimination. That’s partly why James’s racism is never even suggested. Once more, goodness is determined by birth: genes and/or legacy.
The narrative despises Muggles far more than their humanity is defended. The only difference with magicfolk: the gene of magic. Racism that Rowling actually justified with “biology”. What’s she saying about trans people now?
Yes: in HP, you should think of Squibs as pitiful.
The best magical school in the world is the British one. But… why? In a society that’s supposed to be free of real-life racism, what were the odds that the British school is the best out of the 11 that Rowling added on her site?
Skipping the whole issue that some magical schools host a whole continent like Africa while Europe gets 3 of them, with in particular Hogwarts accounting only Britain and Ireland whereas Durmstrang hosts all Eastern Europe’s students, as though they were “all the same” – why isn’t Harry ever taught about the other magical communities and schools, except the other two european ones? Why does the Triwizard Tournament only involve the three European schools? On what criteria is one school determined the best, and who determines it?
The only hope for the whole world against Voldemort resides in Britain. Of all the eligible humans that the Prophecy could have pointed to, it’s the WASP wunderkid?
Why is it established that if Wizarding Britain fails to eliminate Voldemort, the rest of the world – including Muggles – would be unable to stop him? Why is Wizarding Britain supposedly more powerful than all Muggle and non-British Magic communities of the world combined? Why does Dumbledore ask help from the giants and werewolves in Britain but not from foreign magical countries? Is it all racist bias from our heroes? Or is it true, and why? If the magic world was untouched by real-life racism, then there’s no reason Britain should be superior to all else. What’s the story behind all this? Each school could have a domain they excel in, it’s so simple to write… but that won’t happen in Rowling’s fantasy!
What is dark magic? Why is it equal to evil magic? Where do you draw the line? Does foreign magic account for Dark and/or forbidden magic just because Wizarding Britain made it unacceptable?
“I’m just trying to show you they’re not as wonderful as every one seems to think they are.”
The intensity of his gaze made her blush.
“They don’t use Dark Magic, though.”
Does it depend on the person using it? Is it evil magic because the user is evil because they use “dark” magic? Why is it the magic that’s evil, and not its usage? Why isn’t there “evil” light magic, like in Hollow Knight and Smash Bros Ultimate? Why is darkness always associated with evil, especially in a saga about witches and magic?
The simple truth is that the Harry Potter universe is about racism and colonialism. Not just the way it wanted to be. If you want to educate yourself more on antiracism, notably so you can decode the issues in the saga, I recommend “How to Be Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi as well as the French book “La mécanique du privilège blanc” by Estelle Depris.
And so… what does it mean in the case of Severus Snape?
“I know who you are. You’re that Snape boy! They live down Spinner’s End by the river,” she told Lily, and it was evident from her tone that she considered the address a poor recommendation.
By the way, here’s something interesting:
“You are determined to hate him, Harry,” said Lupin with a faint smile. “And I understand; with James as your father, with Sirius as your godfather, you have inherited an old prejudice.
But what kind of prejudice?
Which one that everybody was okay with? Which kind of prejudice was Lily okay with? Where did she draw the line? What prejudice, that didn’t affect her but did affect Snape? What kinds of hate crimes were James, Sirius, Remus and Peter partaking in?
Was it being Slytherin? That would make sense, James insults Sirius and Severus on their first meeting when Slytherin House is mentioned. But then, is being Slytherin being part of a discriminated group? is that what the books are establishing? what Remus is admitting?
Or was it another kind of prejudice? Like, being part of a “race”, whichever one magical society created?
…a kind of social race that Snape was part of.
James Potter’s Race-Swappers
I’m gonna rant.
One of the main concerns brought up when Snape’s new actor was revealed was:
Unsurprisingly a significant part of those who hate Black Snape are Marauder stans. Indeed the Marauder fandom, viciously anti-Snape, has taken the habit in recent years to race-swap James Potter. They say it doesn’t change the story or the narrative significantly but it does.
Marauder fandom’s Snape has been rewritten into the typical white incel nazi supremacist who viciously hates Muggle-Borns like Lily but also Muggles and now hates James Potter because he’s Black/Desi-Indian, making him twicely racist. The self-proclaimed Half-Blood Prince now apparently rejects his Half-blood identity and Muggle origins just like Voldemort does, but they keep his canon physical description to use Rowling’s tool of ascribing likeability and morality depending on the character’s conventional attractiveness.
Lupin’s movie-exclusive and fandom face scars are cool, Snape’s big hooked nose and crooked teeth are monstrous. James Potter’s race-swapping is attractive, Snape’s sallow skin complexion and facial structure is disgusting. Poor Sirius’ ruffled or dirty hair is charming, Snape’s oily hair means he stinks and should be taught how to wash.
– Featuring Regulus Black for the role of Severus Snape in a gay couple!
If you’re one of those who say that someone like James Potter should have been Black instead of Severus, 1) don’t you think it’s gonna come off as even more offensive? 2) you’re canceling the pretense that it’s just about Rowling’s involvement, and 3) your issue never was about staying faithful to the source material regarding a character’s canon race.
Race-swapped James Potter in the Marauder fandom’s art, usually qualified “Desi James Potter”, is what we call a white guy with a tan. Or “a white man with a brown paint bucket.”
He’s got all the features of a white guy and people think that a lazy stroke of brown paint makes for racial representation.
It’s fetishistic. It’s a cheap means for instrumentalization to appear progressive without a real understanding of the roots and pervasiveness of racism, precisely due to the mindset of those who benefit from white supremacy.
It was quickly followed with Black Lupin, Black Mary, Black Rosier and Black Mulciber – yeah remember those Death Eater wannabes that Snape was at fault for hanging around with? They’re “wizard nazis” in canon; they get to be Black in Marauder fandom. And they’re discount Snapes too!
Don’t get me started with Black Barty Crouch Jr.
Here’s what happens when Essiedu is offered the role of playing Snape in the TV series:
According to those fans, race wasn’t the reason Snape was targeted by the Marauders so he can’t be played by a Black actor.
But on the contrary, if race was never an issue then surely it shouldn’t be sickening that James and his friends say they don’t hate Snape because of his skin color, just because he’s ugly-looking and weird… As long as they say they’re not racist and fight against discrimination, it shouldn’t feel distressing to see those four white boys gang bullying a Black Snape on TV or the darker-skinned ethnic-looking Snape from the books?
They’re pureblood wizards, and unlike Snape who’s got direct Muggle origins and lives in a Muggle neighborhood where the Muggle kind of racism exists, they don’t get the concept of colourism or hating whatever kind of “visible social race”. They cannot perpetrate that kind of racism by virtue of ignorance of a Black Snape’s experiences with the Muggle world now, can they?
The Marauders were staunchly anti wizard supremacy, so it can’t be racist for two pureblooded guys to lynch a muggleborn-halfblood as long as they say that’s because–
“he exists, if you know what I mean.”
“[…] you see, Sirius here played a trick on him which nearly killed him, a trick which involved me –”
“I don’t want you to make him apologize,” Lily shouted, rounding on James. “You’re as bad as he is..”
“What?” yelped James. “I’d NEVER call you a — you-know-what!”
Snape’s a Slytherin!
“My whole family have been in Slytherin,” he said.
“Blimey,” said James, “and I thought you seemed all right!”
‘There’s not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn’t in Slytherin. You-Know-Who was one.’
“Haven’t any of the teachers noticed that the Slytherins are all safe? Isn’t it obvious all this stuff’s coming from Slytherin? The Heir of Slytherin, the monster of Slytherin — why don’t they just chuck all the Slytherins out?” he roared, to nods and scattered applause.
Paapa Essiedu playing Snape forces us all to face the dynamics and takeaways of what happened in canon. This time, you cannot look away from the full horror of what was at play.
A sallow-skinned muggle-born/halfblood boy from what looks like England’s Black Country during the Heath/Thatcher era, marked by economic recession and several miners strikes as the coal industry was shutting down. A poverty-stricken outcast, not wizard poor like the Weasleys, but Muggle poor. And this poverty-stricken boy gets a scholarship to attend a prestigious private boarding school of the likes of Eton, only to get crushed by a system dominated by white purebloods. A well-repeated real-life scenario in regard to real-life racism.
Look at it from a real-world racism standpoint, look at it from an inter-wizard “racism” standpoint: Snape is a victim of systemic oppression where his birth origins fail him.
This is something that Paapa Essiedu has already perfectly illustrated in media such as “I may destroy you”, where a queer Black man gets utterly failed by the system after being raped by his boyfriend. That’s uncannily reminiscent of what happened to Snape after the Werewolf Prank, the Sexual Assault scene, the years of relentless bullying in Hogwarts and even more abuse afterwards by the same people.
Bullying does not occur in a social vacuum; it responds to the same power structures that govern the adult world. Authors like Bourdieu have developed the concept of capital in its multiple forms: economic, social, and cultural. James Potter had access to all of them. Coming from a wealthy family, he possessed economic capital, which translated into a life without deprivation, new clothes, access to goods and resources, and the certainty that any misstep would not compromise his future. His social capital was even more decisive: he was the son of a respected family in the magical community, with a strong support network and a position of prestige at Hogwarts that protected him from any real consequences for his actions. His cultural capital, reinforced by his pureblood lineage and upbringing in an elitist environment, allowed him to navigate power spaces within the school with ease. None of this was available to Severus Snape.
Severus was a working-class child, the son of an abusive man and an impoverished witch. His patched-up clothing and unkempt appearance were not a choice but the result of his material position. He grew up in a depressing industrial neighborhood, a space marked by precariousness and lack of opportunities. Within the Marxist framework, Snape represented the exploited class: without his own resources, without a support network, and without access to the benefits of the upper class, he could only survive through his intelligence and individual effort. His mixed-blood lineage also placed him in an intermediate position within the magical world, always inferior to the purebloods who dominated Hogwarts’ social sphere. This is why talking about a « rivalry » between James and Severus is a misrepresentation of the facts: there was no equality of conditions, no level playing field. What existed was a rich boy using his social and economic power to humiliate a poor boy who had no tools to defend himself.
James Potter’s classism is reflected in the way he chooses his victim. He does not harass other students of his same social class; instead, he preys on Severus, who is in an absolute position of inferiority. James exercises his abuse in public spaces, under the gaze of other students, [publically establishing the social hierarchy between him and Snape, and] aware that his status protects him from any retaliation. It is no coincidence that he is always the one initiating the harassment and that he does so accompanied by his friends, while Snape is alone. This is a classic manifestation of violence exercised from a position of power: it is based on impunity, on the certainty that the system will not intervene in favor of the victim because the aggressor is a legitimized subject within the social structure. James, like any child born into the upper class, learned from an early age that he could do whatever he wanted without real consequences because the world was designed to favor him.
The argument that James « matured » and « changed » over time does not nullify the fact that his youthful violence was possible thanks to his privileged position. Within the meritocratic logic often applied to his story, we are told that James became a better person and that, therefore, his past should be excused. But this ignores that the underlying problem was never just his attitude, but the system that allowed his abuse to occur without consequences. When James finally « grows up, » he has already enjoyed years of prestige, power, and acceptance. His change is not the result of a struggle against the system but a smooth transition within the same structure that always benefited him. Meanwhile, Severus remains trapped in the logic of the dispossessed: still alone, still marginalized, still without the resources to rewrite his story.
From a Marxist perspective, the story of James and Severus is not just a story of two children in conflict. It is the story of how social class defines who has the right to dignity and who must fight for it every day. It is the story of how the violence of the privileged is treated as « youthful pranks » while the anger of the oppressed is seen as a threat. It is the story of how the impunity of power allows the victors to write history and how those who have been humiliated are the ones who must bear the weight of their own suffering.
So. This is the character that part of the fandom decided to race-swap. James Potter, the quintessence of a Christian able-bodied athletic conventionally attractive cishet white male millionaire, the heir of a centuries-old line of English aristocracy. That’s pretty niche, I know. But that’s what James Potter is meant to be: perfection. Perfection equal to saintly Lily Evans, making their union destined and idyllic. All the more concerning when:
“walking down corridors and hexing anyone who annoys you just because you can”
“A small amount of talent on the Quidditch pitch made him think he was a cut above the rest of us, too […] Your father didn’t set much store by rules, either. Rules were for lesser mortals, not Quidditch Cup-winners.”
Did you know that the epitaph on James and Lily’s tombstone is a Bible quote?
The last enemy to be destroyed is death. – 1 Corinthians 15:26
James’ numerous privileges are clearly asserted by his friends, and worse, they’re weaponized to humiliate Severus who’s at the intersection of equally numerous objects of discrimination; the Marauders are gloating:
I think James was everything Snape wanted to be — he was popular, he was good at Quidditch, good at pretty much everything. And Snape was just this little oddball who was up to his eyes in the Dark Arts
For years, you, Snape-hating fans, have claimed that what happened between the Marauders and Snape:
was just made up and it’s all fake
and if it did happen, it was exaggerated
and if not, it wasn’t that bad
and if it was real bad, it was just rivalry
and if it wasn’t rivalry, it was self-defense
and if not, it wasn’t their fault: they were just 15
and if that’s not an excuse, well Snape deserved it
and if it wasn’t deserved, it doesn’t matter ultimately: they “grew out of it” while Snape never “got over it”
Same thought trains in particular for Snape’s SA in 5th year and survival of a murder attempt by Sirius a few months prior. You know, the Werewolf “Prank”.
And it’s only now, with the possibility of watching on TV a Black Snape undergo all of this, that you guys realize how problematic this is.
That was the whole point of his story. That was the point we were making all along.
It’s sad that it takes a Black actor interpreting Snape in a TV series that wants to further and more faithfully expand on the original material for some of you to realize that bullying someone because of their looks and especially considering their lower social status and the “race” they might belong to is precisely anti-progressive.
The more violent you are, the better your bullying gets. It brings out the worst in people. Violence requires a loss of morals, violating human rights; eventually, engaging in the most accessible way to be violent: the most oppressive system currently in power. Like any form of violence, certain forms of bullying can serve as tools for self-defense and defend our rights. But it’s like a gun; use it carelessly and now you’re one of the oppressors that you – and us – are aiming to get rid of.
Take this hate mail from anonymous here and pay attention to their choice of words: “Snape dickriders”.
They call us “dickriders” and not “Snape fuckers” because in our current society a keymark of inferiority is to be penetrated, encompassing all that isn’t a cishet male dom. It’s sexual objectification born from a sexist and queerphobic culture.
Unfortunately I can’t find it again, but I remember that one of these “Snape dickriders” posts also called Snape fans “the most mentally ill group” – an insult that’s easy to find in the circle of Marauders stans anyway. “The most mentally ill group” reinforces the bigotry of the first insult since women, LGBT+ people and sex-workers have historically been the subject of medical violence and psychiatrization, a form of oppression by essentialization (think “hysteria”). And because it specifically targets the neurodivergent and the mentally ill as a whole, it’s also ableist.
Three forms of bigotry in a single sentence.
Don’t be a bully. In particular, don’t bully people just because of their looks, because you will inevitably fall into a type of discrimination.
You bully someone because you find them ugly and evil-looking, turns out that’s because you’re racist.
You bully a boy because he snivels a lot and now you’re perpetuating sexist gender norms.
You bully someone because they’re unclean, answering to a system of oppression that punishes those who don’t have the resources to take care of their looks or their hygiene: that’s classism.
Bully a kid because they’re obese and you’re not just ableist but fatphobic.
Bully someone because they’re weird, turns out that person’s autistic and you’ve taken part in ableism.
That person studies an academic subject you find devilish and that should be censored, because you follow “family-friendly” Christian values that have historically been the source of all kinds of hate crimes.
Paapa Essiedu’s Snape
Canon Severus Snape was the target of unaddressed systemic oppression. His experiences with bias, prejudice and discrimination makes an unambiguously Black Snape closer to the official material than the movies. It highlights key issues that were never properly reflected on in the books and outright skipped by Alan Rickman’s portrayal. It’s an opportunity to refresh the HP story in this adaptation with our new perspective on social rights.
So overall I’m quite confident with this casting and if it weren’t for the fact that watching the HBO series will fund Rowling’s anti trans agenda, I’d be excited to see what will come out of it. I wish Paapa Essiedu the best time of his life playing Severus Snape as the Harry Potter saga gets another crisis.
The Sneep Project 
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