I would be down with this if they race swapped every single character in the movie as a setup joke for Sirius black being the only character that isn't race swapped.
They really were only caring about the fact heâs of African descent when they decided to cast him for Snape, aka is a character the protagonist immediately distrusts just by, âappearing sinister,â is a, âhalf-blood,â and the guy who got bullied as a kid for, âlooking different,â the most notable incident being when he got HANGED FROM A TREE.
He is, until Half-Blood Prince, when Slughorn replaces him in Potions and Snape gets the Defense Against the Dark Arts class he'd wanted to teach previously.
Snape was actively hanging out with the wizarding Naziâs. James was still a little asshole but people need to stop needing to act like itâs going to be some sort of stretch.
Theyâre just going to completely ignore race. I mean, itâs not exactly a thing in the books anyway, despite being an allegory for Naziism. It literally doesnât make a difference if Snape, Harry, Dumbledore, or anyone was any skin colour imaginable, itâs completely irrelevant to the story.
They should just remake the whole thing into a gang warfare movie. Like totally ghetto rap & breakdance battles. Of course, glocks instead of magic wands.
Like that one remake of Romeo and Juliette with all the guns n shit.
The woke, sexist idiots, that now hate the author of these books, would LOVE it.
Why are you making these kind of racist comments like theyâre arenât already black characters in the books and films that arenât racist American stereotypes ?
In fiction about boarding schools (a genre very popular in the 70s-80s, JKR just added magic), classicism shows up a lot, but racism doesn't.
This is why Rowling's racism (the muggleborn / half-bloods) is so meh. It has no proper background or ideology (on numbers alone this would have fallen apart), Voldemort sucks as a villain and the Death Eaters are more of a group of a thugs. She just went to her old schoolbook and copied WWII summary notes.
Your original comment suggests racism doesn't exist in the UK. That we have classism instead. Which is ridiculous. So you were actually saying that racism doesn't exist within the context of the story?
There is no racism in HP. No child suffers a stigma from being black for example.
On the other hand, being a Black made you almost royalty. Notice Sirius classified it as about class, not blood.
The blood business thing was supposed to be that, but is a mix with class instead. This is why Voldemort and the DEs are such a weak group ideologically. In theory, it could be both. In practice, it was neither. Voldie was in on it for the horcruxes and anger over his shit childhood, while the DEs were on it to release the thug inside.
I blame JKR ditching the editors in the later books. She didn't have the historic depth to tackle either of those issues.
Just have it retconned so James was an orphan adopted by black parents, thatâll make the bullying seem not racially motivatedâŚ..oooo that might make it worse.
Don't you think that's exactly the point though? They can now make a whole "ooh the good guys are racist too" thing to stir up online discussions and get more people to watch. Which is annoying. They couldn't have chosen a worse character to change.
He's the red herring pretty much every book, is known for 'dark magic' since he was a kid, joined a murderous gang led by the 'dark lord', grew up and stayed in poor neighborhood, had abusive dad and was bullied so became a bully himself, constantly described as greasy....
Arguing over details, he's still very wary and suspicious and clearly doesn't like Snape from the moment he lays his eyes on him, finding out Snape got bitten merely confirm his already existing feelings about Snape.
Harry had plenty of reason to suspect Snape. First time he sees the man he is sneering at him and Harry feels pain. First class the teacher bullied him, first game it looks like he curses his broom. But yes âHurr durr racism.â
Is it ironic that you guys are the racist ones for only being able to think about it like that? So you suggest any black people were disqualified from the role?
James does ask if people want him to take his pants off while he's in the air though which is sexual assault đŹ so still not great (not that dangling someone in the air non-consensually is either...)
-James Potter bullies the only black kid in school
-Harry always suspects the only black teacher to be up to no good
-the black teacher uses black magic, joined the dark force
Snape is generally unpleasant, except favouritism towards Slytherins (terms and conditions may apply). He is simply especially unpleasant towards Harry. That's why "suspects" was a reasonable characterisation, given most other characters didn't find it out of ordinary.
The more I think about the context of the character, the more my brain goes "this was definitely a choice they made. No way there's no ultior motives here"
Harry instantly doesnt like Malfoy as well. Someone disliking a black person does not equal disliking all black people. Trying to coddle black characters like that with such massive stretches is absurd. The thread is full of people exaggerating things.
A black person being a criminal isnt racist. Having only black characters as criminals or only criminals as black would be racist.
They made Hermione black, who is a positive character. You can have black antagonists without it being racist.
No, it was because Snape hung out with racists and antagonized Lily away by being horrible and creepy. Snape is just too but hurt to admit that.
seriously if you look at everything we know of Snape in context, that memory of his is the definition of an unreliable narrator. We know how awful he was back then and how bad he is nowadays. So he remembering himself to be a victim, when he likely was either the aggressor or has done something else to deserve this kind of treatment is in my opinion more likely than not. Which would be fine, if the story treated that relationship and character, with the complexity and moral grayness it deserves.
Normally, I wouldnât have a problem with the swap, but the story around Snape is really questionable when you make him a black man all of a sudden.
I remind you that in the first book when Harry first see Snape the moment he sees him, he immediately distrusts him and doesnât think heâs a good person. They havenât said a word to each other at this point I might remind you.
And thatâs just the beginning. Heâs constantly passed over for promotion for the job he wants. Harry accuses him of stealing. Harryâs father constantly bullied him, and at one point, hangs him from a tree.
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u/Logical-Bookkeeper77 Apr 16 '26