Oh, the uproar! And oh the hyperbolic response (J.K. Rowling calls those who wonder how Hermione turned black "racists").
All right - I'm white and I admit it - I saw the picture of Hermione from the stage play and wondered why she was black. Must it be my whiteness that does this? After all, I have watched all of the Harry Potter movies numerous times and have gotten used to seeing lilly-white Emma Watson playing the part. If you say "Hermione" that is the image that pops into my head. So my natural reaction to seeing the new casting - which apparently makes me a racist - was "What happened? Why make the change?"
Does it help if I say that, should Hermione have been cast as black all along I would not have had this reaction? (Have you ever heard of the "oddball paradigm" in ERP research? This is the "what?" reaction we have when a stimulus does not fit with our experience.) In that case, casting her as white would have garnered attention.
Honestly this is the same reaction I would have if James Bond were to "become" black - and I really like Idris Elba as an actor. But, right or wrong, I grew up with a given James Bond. I would have the same reaction if a new Shaft movie came out with him played by a white guy. It is not that Hermione can't be black, it is that she has never been black before when we have seen her, nor has Shaft (or the Jeffersons) been white to my knowledge. Many more people have likely seen her than read about about her.
So why the change? Marketing? To create a stir? To set the stage for all this "false outrage"? To rekindle the lost relevance now that the main series has ended and no one much cares or would care but for this change? Far a more diverse "wizarding world"?
Let's be honest - people are going to notice when a character they have been watching for almost 20 years changes color. Sorry - it can't really be helped. And when they notice, they are going to ask why? If that is an uncomfortable question, then so be it. It does not mean they are racists. It is funny - if someone says "I do not notice race" we would accuse them of committing what is now called a "micro-aggression" - denying the differences and someone's uniqueness. However, if someone does notice that the racial identity of a beloved character that has been portrayed in one way over 8 movies has changed, then they are a racist. Get used to it.
And if you really want to be entertained, skim the article and then read the comments. Have anthropologists discovered that whining is a universal trait? And, oh the machinations people go through to support their justified upset. Poor white Jesus has even been dragged into the melee.
I guess I'll pick this one as typical:
"Jk Rowling never specified Hermionie's race. The character could easily be imagined as belonging to several races. Of the three main characters only Ron is obviously white because of his red hair. We don't know the race of Harry's father so the main character could be cast as biracial. The author wanted it left to the imagination of the child reading the books and that is a good thing."
As others noted, Rowling was part of the team that made the movies and I am sure had at least some say on designs of book covers. In both of those instances, she apparently was in on the choice to portray Hermione as white, in spite of or to resolve any ambiguity she may have designed into her books. To say now that she never "specified" is to imply that she had no role in the process. It is hard to avoid the notion that, as a struggling artist, Rowling had no concerns with such details, but having met her basic needs has moved on to other "social justice" considerations.
That and the fact that she needs some way to remain relevant.
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