That's interesting about Slughorn because I think I have the opposite reaction. With Snape it seems like while he had more malice, he went through a period where he was out there as openly malicious, and then he seems to have changed. He still did some damage--it's like with the prophecy. His passing it on got Harry targeted, but then he (allegedly) tried to do something to undo that, and he is now actively working for the other side. But he doesn't honestly seem to struggle with prejudice against Muggle-borns now.
With Slughorn the lack of malice (or at least conscious malice) makes it harder for anyone to call him on what he's doing. He's convinced he's being just fine. Unfortunately, he's not just like somebody grandfather who just will never stop using calling people "colored" and is always going to consider them inferior but also probably isn't going to do much more than say embarassing things at home. Slughorn is a teacher--one who takes an active role in shaping his society because he's got a lot of power. So at times I feel like he's the more sinister--not only is he subtly putting down more Muggle-borns as they come into his class, but I'll bet it would be harder to complain about him.
I guess a better way of explaining it is to say that while Slughorn isn't as bad a person as Snape is and was, he seems to represent a much more powerful force of bigotry. Sixteen years after Voldemort's first defeat Snape shows signs of having actually changed, while Slughorn never sees a problem. He's more slippery.:-)
So it's complicated: it's partly self-loathing, partly probing for a generic weak spot in Lily, partly the most context-specific way he can try to put her down.
Yes, exactly--and I think that given the history of the word in that world (different from a racial slur in ours) its use seems to almost always be directed not at the Muggle-born but at the Pure-bloods with them who understand what it means and feel it more keenly. Whatever it does mean, Snape seems to have grasped the right way to use it in ways I don't think I do yet. Fandom tends to, for instance, assume that Pure-bloods have to hate Half-bloods too, but they don't seem to. (I think part of that is wanting Snape to be more one of the victims, too, the Malfoys make it easy by being Pure-blood). (This is another reason I LOVE in Maya's fic where Draco thinks he wouldn't want children with Katie for one reason that makes him sympathetic, and another that's believably racist.)
It's more important, in making a moral judgment about a whole person, to ask what use the person is making of racist concepts, both internally, for his own psyche, and externally, as a weapon or act of cruelty.
Yes--and I think that's often the way it works in the real world too. If you just make it about some vague idea if someone "really" thinks a group is inferior in every way, you'd probably be searching a long time. The appeal of racism isn't always that it seems logical.
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Date: 2007-06-26 08:16 pm (UTC)With Slughorn the lack of malice (or at least conscious malice) makes it harder for anyone to call him on what he's doing. He's convinced he's being just fine. Unfortunately, he's not just like somebody grandfather who just will never stop using calling people "colored" and is always going to consider them inferior but also probably isn't going to do much more than say embarassing things at home. Slughorn is a teacher--one who takes an active role in shaping his society because he's got a lot of power. So at times I feel like he's the more sinister--not only is he subtly putting down more Muggle-borns as they come into his class, but I'll bet it would be harder to complain about him.
I guess a better way of explaining it is to say that while Slughorn isn't as bad a person as Snape is and was, he seems to represent a much more powerful force of bigotry. Sixteen years after Voldemort's first defeat Snape shows signs of having actually changed, while Slughorn never sees a problem. He's more slippery.:-)
So it's complicated: it's partly self-loathing, partly probing for a generic weak spot in Lily, partly the most context-specific way he can try to put her down.
Yes, exactly--and I think that given the history of the word in that world (different from a racial slur in ours) its use seems to almost always be directed not at the Muggle-born but at the Pure-bloods with them who understand what it means and feel it more keenly. Whatever it does mean, Snape seems to have grasped the right way to use it in ways I don't think I do yet. Fandom tends to, for instance, assume that Pure-bloods have to hate Half-bloods too, but they don't seem to. (I think part of that is wanting Snape to be more one of the victims, too, the Malfoys make it easy by being Pure-blood). (This is another reason I LOVE in Maya's fic where Draco thinks he wouldn't want children with Katie for one reason that makes him sympathetic, and another that's believably racist.)
It's more important, in making a moral judgment about a whole person, to ask what use the person is making of racist concepts, both internally, for his own psyche, and externally, as a weapon or act of cruelty.
Yes--and I think that's often the way it works in the real world too. If you just make it about some vague idea if someone "really" thinks a group is inferior in every way, you'd probably be searching a long time. The appeal of racism isn't always that it seems logical.