Googling around, I’ve seen a lot of users and journos claiming they are a jewish stereotype. I struggled to even compare them to what HP did. And as a partially jew, I’m really jealous of qualities these bigots paint and the thinking process Quark put to work. He’s probably my favorite character of the whole franchise.
DS9 saw a feminist Ferengi revolution that largely happened off-screen but the women (sorry, feeemales) started off as objectified and servile and enslaved, and ended able to go about without men, make their own profit, and wear whatever they want! If anything, their insanely advanced timeline was something I found enviable.
So the problem is that the HP goblins didn’t accept a major shift in their culture to more easily integrate and develop with the rest of the magical world?
Wizards aren’t the United Federation of Planets. They’re conservative and isolationists. Why would the goblins want to integrate with them and their values?
There’s no reasonable explanation for such a major shift in culture over night, for any of the magical races.
I can’t actually talk about Harry Potter. I only addressed the thing I know about (the DS9 Ferengi feminist revolution). I’m not supporting or refuting a hypothesis, just adding information to the part of the conversation I’m qualified to comment on (big fan of DS9).
Lol, yes.
The inclusion of the particular details of goblins serves no purpose, it tells no part of the story other than to suggest the way in which rowling views Jewish people. Subjugated and marginalized, but also subject to harmful stereotypes.
Note that I am treating the HP goblins and jews as different entities. I never saw them as synonymous. The goblins’ culture in the story was theirs and theirs alone and you won’t get me to see otherwise because that’s what it is to me, a story.
That being said, if we attribute goblins as representative to Jewish people, then we should do the same over the entire series. Which culture do the wizards represent? The giants? The werewolves? The mer people? Pure bloods? Mudbloods?
Every other representative is ignored. The portrayal of society is ignored. The goblins are pulled out of that story and their role within, put under a spotlight and given a sign saying “pity us”.
Because the Jewish were marginalized? They were. Many times, in many countries. Across many centuries.
This isn’t antisemitism, it’s fact of history. Don’t like history? Too bad, it still happened.
Have you actually seen the movies or read the books? Rowling ridicules wizard society. Who does that society represent I wonder? And in what context?
Extract the Jewish from the goblins, then extract the society that treats them poorly. Is it still antisemitism or is it a reflection of reality at one point?