J.K. Rowling was not happy at all with the people who, after the casting of Noma Dumezweni as Hermione in the stage production of ‘Harry Potter & The Cursed Child’, came right bloody out with it and outed themselves as giant walking balls of shitty racism.
In an interview with The Observer, she talked about her frustration with the racist hatred that was directed at her online (particularly Twitter) after the casting decision, which was made by John Tiffany.
She tweeted this delightfully to-the-point tweet, obviously directed to the legions of Harry Potter fans who were spouting bullshit about ‘it not being a race thing, it’s just not canon’:
Canon: brown eyes, frizzy hair and very clever. White skin was never specified. Rowling loves black Hermione ?? https://t.co/5fKX4InjTH
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 21, 2015
But the author says it was not an easy time for anyone involved in that casting decision:
“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.I had a bunch of racists telling me that because Hermione ‘turned white’ – that is, lost colour 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 stated his disappointment with the fans who refused to accept Hermione as a black woman:
“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 visualise a non-white person as the hero of a story. It’s therefore brilliant that this has happened.”
TRUTH!
So if you’re one of the people not on board with Hermione being a black woman – you might wanna take some time out and really think deeply about why you feel weird about it. Really get down into the root of the problem.
Source: The Observer.
Photo: Cindy Ord / Getty.
