Harry Potter, at least where the original books and movies are concerned, has been over forever. If you know anything about anything, though, it’s clear to see that the series will never be over. And with more books, movies, and plays in the works, it’ll be many years before fans have a dearth of material to obsess and fight over. One thing that’s not okay to question, however? The races of the characters in the series about boy wizards, literal dragons, and people who hide the lord of all evil on the back of their heads. J.K. Rowling made that very clear when people on Twitter came at her for “allowing” a black Hermione to be cast in the play.
This isn’t the first time that Rowling has slammed “idiots” for protesting the casting of Noma Dumezweni (a black woman) as adult Hermione in the upcoming The Cursed Child. In a recent interview, Rowling pointed out that Dumuzweni was the best actress for the job and that fans, no matter how devoted, don’t really get a say whether Hermione is white or black (again, in a universe where people talk to snakes and get sucked into diaries). The actress, Rowling said, had her full and enthusiastic blessing.
Of course, that wasn’t enough for people on the internet who don’t think of themselves as racists. So they continued tweeting at Rowling to let her know that “hey, it’s not really about race at all!” No, it’s about consistency with the movies. Interesting take, but even if there was a point, why should all things in the Harry Potter universe be consistent with the movies? And what about the books? Lots of things changed between that and the movie! Are we just going to freak out about that, too? Nope. Because any protest about Dumezweni’s casting is racist. And anyone who believes that there’s no way a black woman could have been the best actress for the job is exhubiting racist attitudes, whether they like it or not.
But don’t take our word for it. Check out this conversation Rowling had on Twitter with some outraged fans just today.
Here’s what Rowling posted back in December, when people had just started crying out about the complete and utter injustice that Hermione Granger would ever be played by a black woman. “It’s not canon,” they moaned — to which they got this response:
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
It’s been more of the same since, but apparently Rowling has finally had it. Here are tweets from today:
it is not about racism. It is just about consistency of the movie. How come you cannot find even a good white actress
— Dan (@Dan49905785) June 10, 2016
We found the best actress and she's black. Bye bye, now. https://t.co/1fGmP5znHP
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) June 10, 2016
“How come you cannot even find a good white actress” is clearly one of the most idiotic things ever written on Twitter, and it’s pretty awesome that Rowling decided to put this guy — whose sole purpose seems to be to remind everyone that he cares too much for the franchise to let a black person play a lead role — on blast for focusing solely on race. After all, it’s not like there’s a dearth of white actors playing characters of color. And remember what happened when Rue was played by Amandla Stenberg instead of a little white girl in The Hunger Games? More outrage about canon, even though nowhere in the book did it say Rue was to be white. Good thing Rowling’s standing up and shutting these people down.
Couple this with Hillary Clinton’s tweet to Donald Trump yesterday, and we’ve officially had a really good week in Twitter shutdowns.
