There’s a lot being said about Hogwarts Legacy pretty much everywhere, but what’s being left out of the discussion are the many organizations and sites who are actively promoting and profiting off its release.
Sooner or later the discourse around this actively harmful, antisemitic, and transphobic game will die down. And when it does, several places will continue to profit by offering walkthroughs, tips and tricks, opinion pieces, let’s plays, and other guides that support players.
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I want to know who saw the harm being done and looked the other way to help their bottom line.
This list is not complete and doesn’t include streamers, youtubers, and others I haven’t had time to track down. Please add whatever I’m missing!
IGN
GameInformer
Gamespot
ForTheWin
PC Gamer
GameRant
ScreenRant
CBR.com
Engadget
ClutchPoints
PlayStationLifestyle.net
DigitalTrends
Bloomberg
DailyMail
Forbes
CNN
USA Today
Fox News
CNET
Food Network
RadioTimes
9 notes
·
View notes
Harry Potter, and JK Rowling’s antisemitism
Growing up in a non-Jewish household, I had never realised just how antisemitic Harry Potter actually is, until I had hit my teenage years and learnt about my mothers side of the family and their Jewishness. That’s the moment it hit me.
For those who, somehow, aren’t aware of what Harry Potter is, it’s a novel written by J.K. Rowling, author of many other books, and mostly known these days for her transphobia, racism, and all round bigotry.
The novels follow a 11 year old orphan, living with an abusive aunt and uncle, who had just found out he is actually a wizard, as where his parents. Here, he goes to Hogwarts, a school specifically for witches and wizards, and is shown the wizarding world. At first glance, nothing about this seems antisemitic, right?
It’s not until Harry enters Gringotts Bank, where you start to see more and more antisemitic themes. The flooring of the bank has a Star of David pattern on it. (Those who don’t know what the Star of David looks like, it’s this ✡️)
The Star of David is recognised as a Jewish symbol, as it had been almost universally adopted by Jews during the 19th-century. During the holocaust, Nazis had made Jews wear a yellow patch with the Star of David on it, as a way of separating Jews from everyone else.
Now, the Star of David being apart of the floor pattern in Gringotts bank isn’t in itself antisemitic, as it is the flooring of the actual filming location, London’s High Commission of Australia. But it’s other features, combined with the flooring, that make Gringotts Bank in itself antisemitic propaganda.
What are these other features, you ask? The goblins who run the bank. J.K. Rowling depicted them in the series as a secretive cabal of hook-nosed bankers, who maintain a contentious relationship with the wizarding world, who view them with deep suspicion. These Goblins fall into the Nazi depiction of Jews, using antisemitic tropes and stereotypes.
A lot of Harry Potter fans had tried to debunk this, and claiming it isn’t antisemitic, as the goblins fit into the fantasy world J.K. is creating, but goblins in folklore had never been found behind a desk, nor running an underground bank. And if J.K. desperately wanted goblins in her series, she could of depicted them differently.
Instead, she actively chose to give them antisemitic Jewish physical traits, such as hunched backs, large hooked noses, beady eyes, long fingers. She also chose to depict the goblins as greedy, gold loving bankers.
Banking and Money Lending has historically been a profession forced onto Jews by the churches, and then later persecuted for. J.K’s goblins are also seen as blood thirsty and viscous, and Jews have been subjected to hundreds of years of blood libel, resulting in our mass persecution and genocide.
But what else about Harry Potter could possibly be antisemitic, besides the goblins?
Harry Potter is a holocaust allegory, written by someone who is not Jewish, and who did not take the time, care, nor consideration to educate herself on Jewish culture and history.
The death eaters in Harry Potter had intentionally been written as a nazi allegory, they’re depicted as these dark, cool Voldemort followers with snake tattoos, and Voldemort himself is painted in an antisemitic light. Following along with this allegory, the muggles (non wizards) in this universe are Jews.
Muggles had been exiled from the wizarding world, and are talked down upon by the witches and wizards. How is this antisemitic? The muggles are actually different from the wizards. They have no powers. This gives antisemites a ledge to stand on, as in real life, Jews are seen as inferior species.
I am not trying to cancel Harry Potter, as I’ve accepted it’s forever going to be apart of my generation, the generations before and after me. However I wish for more people to be aware of the content they consume, and just how hurtful these themes can be towards others.
J.K. Rowling has also been actively racist in the series, but as a white person, it is not my place to speak on these issues, instead I have linked posts below talking about them.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post.
(Any hate towards me or downright racism, antisemitism, and JK defending commenters will be blocked and deleted.)
Anything else you’d like for me to add? Feel free to reach out!
25 notes
·
View notes
look at this point, the 'Hogwarts open world game' (as my nibling described it) could be a masterful piece of trans inclusiveness (it's not. in the least. completely barring that it will put money in JKR's pocket, it's horrible) and you should still boycott it over the RAMPART AND OBVIOUS antisemitism. Shit, guys. no amount of donating to trans causes is going to make up for the planting of these images in people's minds. (or drawing them out; society is fucked like that sometimes) Blood libel, war crimes, torture, hate, it's just a smorgasbord of glitchy terror. Everytime I hear more about it, it sounds WORSE. (how can it keep getting worse?)
I get it okay. Hogwarts was a huge part of your childhood. it made you feel like you were part of something. Been there. But it's not worth it. You can hold onto your memories of how it made you feel. But you can't keep making excuses for it. (it's like an ex. They may have loved you, you may have loved them. But they're only hurting you and other people now. You have to let them go)
7 notes
·
View notes