J.K. Rowling (Credit: AP/Dan Hallman)
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:
Ghostbusters with all women? Hermione turned black? Why? Can't we just leave good casting alone?
— Santa'sBigNightmare (@DaveKaosMonkey) December 21, 2015
I can think of a lot more white characters having their races changed, than I can black characters having their races changed.
— Me (@ChangedThis87) December 21, 2015
why cast someone who completely differs to the description depicted in books that created characters we know so well? #CursedChild #Hermione
— Amy Coupe (@Coupeface) December 21, 2015
J.K. Rowling, who you think would have an opinion about Hermione’s race, weighed in with her authorial opinion:
https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/678888094339366914
Not that that was enough to shut the racists up:
@jk_rowling @Gargron @mauvedust @goldregulus Hermione is a pansexual Japanese Hindu, obviously
— Nigma (@NigmaNoname) December 21, 2015
@jk_rowling i cant wait for a black Malfoy family. Yay for positive discrimination!
— Pete Jackson (@Morphindel) December 21, 2015
@jk_rowling Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban BOOK COVER : Hermione is white. If she was black why didn't you tell the drawer ?!
— Delphine A ϟ ✏️ (@Delphiine_A) December 21, 2015
@jk_rowling Thing is we had already pictured her as white. It's been years of it. Continuity?
— Regina Phalange (@dancaffarelli) December 21, 2015
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”:
@jk_rowling @mauvedust @goldregulus umm pic.twitter.com/C9ePuMOG2E
— t (@tobsdv) December 21, 2015
Others attempted to use an old sketch by Rowling to keep their beloved White Hermione white:
@jk_rowling Oh and didn't you draw that picture ? pic.twitter.com/eHrCD2Yz4p
— Delphine A ϟ ✏️ (@Delphiine_A) December 21, 2015
That said, some of her critics did offer salient points:
@jk_rowling seriously jo. if hermione is black, why didn't you tell them to cast a black girl for the movies??
— juliette de sécillon (@jdesecillon) December 21, 2015
@jk_rowling so why didn't you explicitly state in the books that she was black…….
— Remy Hadley (@buckythirteen) 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 Jack Thomas (@benjackthomas) December 21, 2015