When news broke that a middle-aged Hermione Granger would be played by a black South African woman named Noma Dumezweni in the stage production “Harry Potter and The Cursed Child,” it was inevitable that the racist and white supremacist part of the fanbase wouldn’t be happy. Some just saw the casting decision as another indication of the downfall of white/western civilization:
why cast someone who completely differs to the description depicted in books that created characters we know so well? #CursedChild #Hermione
— Amy Sherratt (@Coupeface) December 21, 2015
J.K. Rowling, who you think would have an opinion about Hermione’s race, weighed in with her authorial opinion:
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
Not that that was enough to shut the racists up:
Some even attempted the desperate gambit of using her own words against her, sadly unaware that the expression in question is a colloquialism for “fear”:
Others attempted to use an old sketch by Rowling to keep their beloved White Hermione white:
That said, some of her critics did offer salient points:
@jk_rowling so why didn't you explicitly state in the books that she was black…….
— James Hadley (@jh_bucky13) December 21, 2015
Of course, the casting gives more teeth to a common slur used against Hermione:
People complaining about the new casting of Hermione: look at the books. Suddenly, that "Mudblood" slur has become even more meaningful…
— Joanne Harris (@Joannechocolat) December 21, 2015
In the end, however:
No need for a sorting hat! Anyone who has any sort of problem with Hermione being of any colour, race or religion is in Slytherin. #idiots
— Ben Bowdler-Thomas (@benjackthomas) December 21, 2015
