When it was first announced that JK Rowling would be taking Harry Potter to London’s West End in a new two-part production, a wave of electricity suddenly re-ignited a dormant fanbase.
Potterheads were brimming with excitement at the idea of a new story involving our three favorite wizards - though, that enthusiasm would soon be replaced with a rather disappointing reminder of the flaws in our society and an important lesson on history and representation.
The script for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was created thanks to a collaboration between JK Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany, the latter of whom went on to direct the stage production in the summer of 2016.
Set 19 years after the events of the Deathly Hallows, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child tells the story of Harry’s teenage son, Albus, and Draco Malfoy’s son, Scorpio, and their own battle against dark forces as they try to keep the planet safe like their parents did before them. We also get to see Ron and Hermione’s daughter Rose join the dynamic duo, as well as Voldemort and Bellatrix Lestrange’s secret love child, Delphi.
I know, what an absolute plot twist and a half.
While you would assume that Voldemort’s ability to have offspring would be the most scandalous part of the production, it was surprisingly topped by JK Rowling’s choice of casting. It seems as though some people found it difficult to imagine popular characters as Black. Why? Well, your guess is as good as mine.
When it was confirmed that Noma Dumezweni would first be taking on the role of the ambitious and quick-witted bookworm Hermione Granger in the original production of the play, a host of angry fans took to Twitter to criticize the decision armed with exclamation marks and pathetic excuses.
One person painfully tweeted: "i'm offended by the casting of #CURSEDCHILD hermione is a white character. we may not make poc characters white so white should not be poc [sic]".
Others argued that "Hermoine was a 'white' person's name" and that Hermoine being Black in the play broke the canonical lore of the wizarding movies.
"HeRmIoNe is wHiTe !1!1!" they cried... but we all knew the truth.
Hermione was, in fact, not real.
It's quite funny that we can easily make room for wild ideas about everything else in the world of cinema, but we draw the line at casting Black people to play characters we just assume are white. And that’s the operative word in this: assume.
Our conclusions are derived from assumptions and what we believe to be the default unless stated otherwise and yes, that is rooted in social conditioning and racial bias.
But we’ll get onto that a bit later.
For now, let’s check out some of the evidence for both sides of the argument about the possibility of defining Hermione’s race.
According to multiple sources including JK Rowling herself, there have been no specific indicators relating to her skin color in any of the books, though it has been stated that she has "brown bushy hair."
However, Black writer and fellow Harry Potter fanatic Enobong Essien did state that there’s a bigger likelihood that Hermione was imagined as white at the time of writing due to subtle details about the character, such as her ability to visibly blush and "turn white" when faced with danger. For those of us that have been blessed with an extra dash of melanin, we know the difficulties of being able to turn any other lighter shade.
However, that does not mean the character cannot be imagined as someone of color, because it is not integral to the story's development. Her race does not crop up as something that defines her character arc, so to be so adamant that we have to see Hermione be portrayed via a white woman is actually extremely concerning.
In an interview with The Observer at the time, Rowling addressed the "bunch of racists", stating: "With my experience of social media, I thought that idiots were going to idiot. But what can you say? That’s the way the world is. Noma was chosen because she was the best actress for the job."
She continued: "I had a bunch of racists telling me that because Hermione 'turned white' – that is, lost color from her face after a shock – that she must be a white woman, which I have a great deal of difficulty with. But I decided not to get too agitated about it and simply state quite firmly that Hermione can be a Black woman with my absolute blessing and enthusiasm."
Tiffany also said he was surprised by the opinions expressed online but had stopped reading the comments.
Also speaking to The Observer, he said: "I am not as Twitter-familiar as Jo and Jack, so I hadn’t encountered its dark side, which is just awful. But what shocked me was the way people couldn’t visualize a non-white person as the hero of a story. It’s therefore brilliant that this has happened."
But we have to ask ourselves, are we really surprised at the backlash?
On multiple occasions, we have seen people waving their pitchforks at creators for trying to diversify narratives, especially when it comes to visual representation. We only need to look at the past decade of outrage to see the evidence.
Let’s start off with MJ being portrayed by Zendaya in the MCU's Spider-Man franchise, or the potential of Idris Elba taking on the role of James Bond.
"JaMeS bOnD iS wHiTe ThOuGh!1!1!"
No. Daniel Craig is white. James Bond is again, not real.
And don’t even get me started on Black Ariel.
Who knew a little Black mermaid could evoke such a strong reaction from white folks? I haven’t seen that much passion from them since Starbucks announced that its iconic Pumpkin Spice Latte was now available in a cold brew version.
The only thing I can pin the blame on for this thought process - besides the obvious racist undertones - is implicit racial bias.
According to Vox, "implicit racial bias" is a term that describes what's happening when, despite our best intentions and without our awareness, racial stereotypes and assumptions creep into our minds and affect our actions.
The first step in understanding how implicit racial bias works is to start off by coming to terms with the fact that we're all guilty of it in one way or another, but while some of us try to decode those stereotypes in our heads, others just let it manifest. This allows said stereotypes to spread into other aspects of our lives - and for writers, that includes within their storytelling.
Zeba Blay, an author who praised Harry Potter's Black characters for being "revolutionary", discussed this idea by stating that our minds automatically set themselves to the default - which is white - unless stated otherwise. Applying this theory helps us understand that authors tend to use this standard when developing their characters too.
Take the extended wizards in Harry Potter for example; we have Angelina Johnson, Dean Thomas, Lee Jordan, Kingsley, and the Zabini family, who are all of Black heritage. We can also assume, based on the specific name choices, that the Patil twins are South Asian and Cho Chang is East Asian, most likely Chinese. So this, by default, would lead some people to believe that Hermione must be white as her race or ethnicity was not specifically cherry-picked as a defining quality about her through other named characteristics.
Yet again though, this is not explicitly true nor does it matter.
But you know what does matter? Casting a Black Hermione for audiences to see.
Assistant professor of film and media studies at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Aviva Dove-Viebahn, spoke about how the representation of Black people has changed over time, stating that while "it's getting better", we need to see more "meaningful diversity."
Black people make up 12.9% of leading roles in cable-scripted shows (proportionately reflecting the overall Black population of 13.4%) though the numbers behind the scenes aren't as encouraging. Only 6% of the writers, directors, and producers of US-produced films are Black.
Dove-Viebahn states that people "have to be thoughtful about the sort of representation by the people of color in your film or TV show.
"That doesn’t mean the plots always have to revolve around race. It means that those characters can’t feel like they’ve just been thrown in without any thought as to why you wanted a character who is (for example) from an Indigenous background in this role."
Though the professor stated that she is "optimistic" for the future of Black and POC representation, we must "remain vigilant" in our stance in order to keep up the momentum.
And that's exactly what casting Dumezweni to play Hermione is doing - it's keeping up the momentum.
Speaking to Playbill in April 2019, Jenny Jules, the Black actress who played Hermione on Broadway stated that Dumezweni's casting, alongside her own, was "breathtaking" for some fans who don't usually get to see themselves leading the narrative.
Jules said: "I think in casting Noma Dumezweni, it was color-blind and color-conscious at the same time."
She believes the director did choose the best actor, "but in doing that, he said, 'I’m going to start this journey with this person who happens to be of this racial ethnicity, and I have to think about the future of this character.'"
Jules said that by casting subsequent Black actresses, "he was starting a revolution," much like Blay stated in her article.
"I just know that young women of color are coming into the theater, seeing me as Hermione... and are seeing me with my afro hairstyle, and it takes their breath away," Jules added. "And they’re just going, 'There I am, I’m represented in this story.'
"How amazing is that?"
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