The series Harry Potter and the texts read in class share many similarities on how various groups of people are treated within society. This essay explores these dimensions and discusses what each of the texts represent. In both literature texts we observe a discrimination and xenophobic attitude towards certain minority groups. A big concept in the Harry Potter series is the discrimination muggle born (wizards with muggle parents) face from pureblood wizards (descendants of the first wizards). The consensus amongst the purebloods is that muggle-born aren’t worthy of being wizards since they are related to muggles (humans without magical powers), while they are because they come from a wizarding lineage. Harry Potter is a series of novels …show more content…
She is a muggle-born and is exceptionally brilliant. She is portrayed as being one of the smartest characters in the entire series, even more than the normal wizards. Despite this, she is still treated unfairly by Voldemort’s followers. Voldemort’s followers don’t have any regard for her talents and skills as a wizard, they just see her as one entity, nothing more. In America, this type of xenophobic attitude is common towards immigrants and foreigners. For instance, the article “Reinventing the Veil” by Leila Ahmed discusses hijabs and the cultural significance and meaning they have towards Muslim women living in a western country. When the rise of hijabs rose in the 1980s, people like Ahmed, were skeptical and frightful towards what it could potentially mean. Questions such as “Was its growing presence a sign that Islamic militancy was on the rise here too? … And why were they accepting whatever it was they were being told, in this country where it was entirely normal to challenge patriarchal ideas?” were brought up (Ahmed). Assumptions of all sorts were made by people without taking a moment to educate themselves on the topic and the reason Muslim women were choosing to wear a …show more content…
After 9/11, they were many incidents of racial discrimination towards people of Middle Eastern heritage. Some of the people being discriminated against were as American as your typical Joe. They were people’s neighbors, doctors, firefighters, and even amongst those who died during the tragic incident. However, this wasn’t taken into consideration, when people shouted racial slurs and perpetrated violence towards this community. This concept is similar and used in the Harry Potter series, when Voldemort rises to power he devised a method of finding out all muggle-borns. When his followers found these innocent muggle-borns, they were either sent to prison or robbed of their wands which gave them powers. This displays the racial discrimination members within society have due to their own limiting beliefs and