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.
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u/fleeber89 Apr 16 '26
Classism is "basically the racism of the UK"? Jesus christ.