What if Harry Potter were Black? by Guest Blogger Charles R. Smith Jr.
July 30th, 2010
Today I am happy to welcome Charles R. Smith, Jr., to Rasco from RIF…happy because I admire his work, happy because his photography is a visual feast, happy because his words always make me think whether they are filled with humor or are more somber in tone.
My first encounter with Charles’ work was the summer RIF selected his poetry books Hoop Kings and Hoop Queens for distribution at a basketball camp. The students sat down on the spot, devoured the poetry, followed by days of talking and sharing the poems with one another; in short, what a hit! Above all, I am happy to have Charles with us today to share a message we think about a great deal, day to day, as we work on our multicultural literacy campaign, RIF’s multi-year effort to promote and support early childhood literacy in African American, Hispanic, and American Indian communities.
What if Harry Potter were black?
Think about that for a long, hard second. He’s still a wizard. Still lives under the stairs with his aunt and uncle. Still great at quidditch. Only difference is he’s black.
Now think about the hysteria surrounding Harry and his wizard world: the midnight parties, the movies, the Halloween costumes and everything else that comes with being a pop cultural celebrity.
Would Harry be as popular if he were black?
As much as I would like to say yes, I really have no idea. But therein lies the rub. We’ll never know because Harry isn’t black. Nor, for that matter, are any other major popular literary characters.
I mentioned as much recently upon receiving an award for a picture book I contributed to called My People. The text is a Langston Hughes poem and I shot photographs to accompany the text. I wrote an acceptance speech months before I actually received the award because the book was to be published the day of the event, so I had a lot of time to think about what I wanted to say.
The book features black and white sepia-toned images of a variety of black people, from golden honey to black as night. I mentioned in the speech that a few people, a small handful, called the book racist because it wasn’t “diverse.” I use quotes because the tone in which the word “diverse” was used reflected an advertising agency’s definition of diverse: “We’ll need an Asian, an African American, a Hispanic and some other ethnic group to show this product is all about diversity.”
I laughed when I heard the critique and pointed out that there are no black wizards, dragon slayers, princes or princesses, or love-torn heroines debating over the brooding vampire or the oh-so-dreamy half-wolf.
I think back to the wonderful Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack Keats. It’s the story of a boy and his dog. I no longer have the book so I can’t quote any lines, but it’s a very simple story about a boy and his dog. Period. The author is also the illustrator and he chose to make the boy black. I thought about that book when I was challenged on my book lacking “diversity.”
Now that I have many books (28 and counting) under my belt, I understood why the author/illustrator made that choice. “Why not?” seemed to be the answer. People of color go through the same everyday routines as other people do. Every waking moment isn’t spent dealing with the color of their skin, and by showing a young black kid with a dog, the author took it upon himself to show that. After I read the book, I assumed the artist was black and when I found out he wasn’t, I appreciated the book all the more.
It seems simple enough as an author to make your main character someone of color without focusing on color, but considering we don’t see it much, it must be difficult. Right? Not exactly. Many factors go into the creation of a character and race is usually reflective of the author. A white author is more likely to create a white character. An Asian author is more likely to create an Asian character, and so on. The problem isn’t the author but rather those who are in the position to shape certain selling points about the character; meaning the publishing company and its marketing departments. I’m sure that if JK Rowling decided to make Harry Potter black, she might have been met with trepidation from the publisher because black characters simply aren’t as popular.
But what if, for whatever reason, she did make Harry black? Would it still be the Harry Potter we know today? Would it have mattered?
The fact that we now have a black president shows that all things are truly possible in the real world for children of color. I’d like to see the same possibility in the world of books.
Filed under: Children's Books, Guest Blogger
Tags: Author, Charles Smith, Guest Blogger, Harry Potter