Can Hermione be black? What a stupid question Black actor Noma Dumezweni has been cast as Hogwarts’ brainiest pupil in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. The decision is a welcome challenge to the assumption that heroes are white by default Chitra Ramaswamy...
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Can Hermione be black? What a stupid question Black actor Noma Dumezweni has been cast as Hogwarts’ brainiest pupil in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. The decision is a welcome challenge to the assumption that heroes are white by default Chitra Ramaswamy Mon 21 Dec 2015 Last modified on Tue 13 Mar 2018 Is Hermione Granger black? This is the question prompted by the casting of a black actor, Noma Dumezweni, as Hogwarts’ cleverest pupil in an upcoming theatre production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. The answer is twofold. First, why the hell not? Second, what a stupid question! A better one to ask is whether Hermione – or indeed any fictional character – is necessarily white. The answer is no. The decision to cast Dumezweni, an Olivier-award winning actor currently performing at the Royal Court in a lead intended for Kim Cattrall, challenges our assumption that characters are white unless we’re told otherwise. For a start, Rowling never explicitly describes Hermione’s race or
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