r/mildyinteresting • u/waiha • May 01 '26

humankind hiccups šŸ˜… Well this aged like milk.

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Stumbled upon this while clearing out the attic.

She visited my primary school in Edinburgh shortly after releasing TPS. The girl in front of me (my friend and train-to-school comrade) was Southeast Asian and has an incredibly elaborate sounding name. When Joanne screwed up her face when my friend gave her her name for the signature, I laughed. This is how she decided to sign my copy.

I was laughing at you, JK.

EDIT: Itā€™s on EBay.

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37

u/Comfortable-Pear-973 May 02 '26

That was my gripe with it. Just ridiculously on the nose. Shacklebolt on the other hand isā€¦. a choice.

38

u/Outofwlrds May 02 '26

That's the basis for my designation lol

Technically Not Bad: Seamus Finnigan (one step better than calling him Lucky the Leprechaun)

Wow That's Pretty Bad: Cho Chang (That's two different common last names from two different Asian countries, can't even get her a real name)

Holy Shit Dude: Kingsley Shacklebolt

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u/rysworld May 02 '26

Zhou Zhang (which is how you render that in modern pinyin, as opposed to wade-giles, which was the romanization scheme for chinese extant when the books were being written) is an incredibly common chinese name. Look it up, there are maybe literally a million Zhou Zhangs. It's another stereotypical name like Seamus Finnegan, tentamount to naming an american character something like "Jessica Smith", but not really beyond the pale.

I can offer no defense for Kingsley Shacklebolt.

3

u/NothingPersonalKid00 May 02 '26

Holy Shit Dude: Kingsley Shacklebolt

Hes a wizard cop, I really dont get what the problem is.

1

u/CatDude55 May 03 '26

she named her only black character Martin Luther Slavery

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u/NothingPersonalKid00 May 03 '26

Why do you assume an English author would name one of her characters after an American civil rights activist? It doesnā€™t make much sense to me, do you always link black people to slaves?

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u/LunaLilithLoveswood May 02 '26

Shacklebolt cause he's a cop. He shackles people. Nothing to do with slavery other people have been shackled before and after.

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u/one_reddit_wonder May 02 '26

Now I see what's the big deal about the surname šŸ˜….

1

u/BotanicIvory May 03 '26

Oh really? See I never knew this, people conveniently leave this out to suit whatever bias they uphold

1

u/EphemerallyViolent May 02 '26

/s ?

3

u/LunaLilithLoveswood May 02 '26

No, that's genuinely the reason he's called that.

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u/EphemerallyViolent May 02 '26

Riiiiiiiiight. Okay.

2

u/Trendydwarf13 May 02 '26

Why is it hard to believe, the werewolf is called Remus Lupin, the guy who turns into a black dog is called Sirius Black, so the cop is called shacklebolt, you realise the mention of shackles does not instantly means slavery

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u/gab_da May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26

There is ABSOLUTELY the important added context here that heā€™s the only canonically explicitly black character in the books. Whether she had a different reason for giving him that name, it should have occurred to her (or her editor, or any person who read the book prior to the final draft being sent to print) that naming the only black character ā€œshackleboltā€ is problematic. And quite honestly given her naming pattern with every other non-white non-English person in the books, itā€™s hard for me to believe that the name was race blind. Cho Chang, Seamus Finnegan, Padma and Pavarti Patel, etc. name any minority who is written as a minority whose name isnā€™t ā€œethnicā€ or whatever Rowling thinks passes as ethnic.

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u/Trendydwarf13 May 02 '26

Cho chang is definitely poor but not racist, just ignorant more than anything and Seamus is a bloody Irish name, and only 1 black character? Dean is black, Lee Jordan is black, Angela Johnson is black

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u/gab_da May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26

It is racist to be willfully ignorant! Rowling was sitting at a desk somewhere trying to think of what to name an East Asian character, did no research, and gave her character a last name as a first. That is racist whether she did so while laughing evilly or while deciding not to make any effort to give her a real name.
I brought up Seamus not to say it was problematic but to point out that this is her pattern of naming non-white or non-English characters.

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u/gab_da May 02 '26

Also, youā€™re right that heā€™s not the only black character. Itā€™s been a long time since I read any of the books.

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u/khaleesi2305 May 02 '26

Angelina Johnson is also canonically black, Pansy Parkinson makes fun of her hair in a way that that makes it very clear. Lee Jordan is for the movies but is never specified in the books, same with Dean Thomas. Michael Corner, the guy Ginny dates is also specifically referred to as ā€œdarkā€ in the books but they changed it in the audiobooks to ā€œdark hairedā€ or something like that because the way it was phrased originally in the books was pretty bad.

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u/WeaponizedFOMO May 02 '26

Never heard you complain about it before

2

u/lucidludic May 02 '26

Shacklebolt isnā€™t the only character who works in law enforcement. He is, however, the only black character who does. Why donā€™t any of the others have names like this?

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u/No-Birthday-7360 May 02 '26

carry out but fyi Chang can be a Chinese last name or Korean

0

u/Redditer51 May 02 '26

In response to people identifying as transwomen, at one point she said "Do I get to be Black if I like Motown and fancy myself in cornrows?"

I think transphobia might not be her only problem...

2

u/LunaLilithLoveswood May 02 '26

Shacklebolt cause he's a cop. He shackles people. Nothing to do with slavery other people have been shackled before and after.

1

u/Unusual_username739 May 02 '26

Jesusā€¦I just got that šŸ¤¦šŸ½ā€ā™€ļø

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u/Prudent-Parsnip-7105 May 02 '26

Please elucidate. Are you saying MLK for Kingsley and Shacklebolt for shackles? Shackles donā€™t have bolts.

2

u/CLAM_FUCKER May 02 '26

don't bother. these people are just off the deep end

it's meant to go shackle > shackles are sometimes used on chains > chains can be used on prisoners > some imprisoned people are slaves > black people are associated with slavery > the character is black

americans are literally that insane

1

u/GoldenSheppard May 02 '26

Until this very second, as someone who loves reading HP fanfic, I did not see this. Thank you for pointing it out. (Though I never saw him as black in my head, never watched the movies).

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u/Overall-Register9758 May 02 '26

He's literally described as a tall black wizard

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u/GoldenSheppard May 02 '26

And the last time I read the book was probably.... the day deathly hallows came out. When I visualize people, they are just blurry blobs. (And I was in my late teens as well, so.... pretty damn stupid)(fanfic just assumes you know what everyone looks like, so the blurry blob stayed blurry and blobby)

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u/Creative_Situation48 May 02 '26

idk why this made me laugh so hard. Thanks lol

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u/Mean-Garden752 May 02 '26

You dont think that it could work in a better series? Like if the wizards were not pro slavery as they almost all are it wouldnt be so silly of a name to take if wizards were active in the abolishtion movement seeing to free the muggle slaves.

Obviously nothing like this is talked about becuase systematic change cant happen in rowlings works but like could be fine if the books were better.

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u/redditerator7 May 08 '26

How is it even ridiculous? Itā€™s a common name but not too common just like half of the names in the series.

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u/Comfortable-Pear-973 May 08 '26

ā€œRidiculously on the noseā€

Reading comprehension is hard, huh?