Well this aged like milk.

[u/waiha]

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: It’s on EBay.

[u/Outofwlrds]

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

[u/rysworld → u/Outofwlrds]

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.

[u/NothingPersonalKid00 → u/Outofwlrds]

Holy Shit Dude: Kingsley Shacklebolt

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

[u/CatDude55 → u/NothingPersonalKid00]

she named her only black character Martin Luther Slavery

[u/NothingPersonalKid00 → u/CatDude55]

Why do you assume an English author would name one of her characters after an American civil rights activist? It doesn’t make much sense to me, do you always link black people to slaves?

[u/LunaLilithLoveswood → u/Outofwlrds]

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

[u/one_reddit_wonder → u/LunaLilithLoveswood]

Now I see what's the big deal about the surname 😅.

[u/BotanicIvory → u/LunaLilithLoveswood]

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

[u/EphemerallyViolent → u/LunaLilithLoveswood]

/s ?

[u/LunaLilithLoveswood → u/EphemerallyViolent]

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

[u/EphemerallyViolent → u/LunaLilithLoveswood]

Riiiiiiiiight. Okay.

[u/Trendydwarf13 → u/EphemerallyViolent]

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

[u/gab_da → u/Trendydwarf13]

There is ABSOLUTELY the important added context here that he’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 “shacklebolt” is problematic. And quite honestly given her naming pattern with every other non-white non-English person in the books, it’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 isn’t “ethnic” or whatever Rowling thinks passes as ethnic.

[u/Trendydwarf13 → u/gab_da]

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

[u/gab_da → u/Trendydwarf13]

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.

[u/Trendydwarf13 → u/gab_da]

Seamus is white, I know obviously the English and Irish don't get along and there's definitely been racism but Irish is still white

[u/gab_da → u/Trendydwarf13]

Also, you’re right that he’s not the only black character. It’s been a long time since I read any of the books.

[u/WeaponizedFOMO → u/gab_da]

Oh, so you were being willfully ignorant?

[u/khaleesi2305 → u/Trendydwarf13]

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 “dark” in the books but they changed it in the audiobooks to “dark haired” or something like that because the way it was phrased originally in the books was pretty bad.

[u/WeaponizedFOMO → u/gab_da]

Never heard you complain about it before

[u/lucidludic → u/Trendydwarf13]

Shacklebolt isn’t the only character who works in law enforcement. He is, however, the only black character who does. Why don’t any of the others have names like this?

[u/No-Birthday-7360 → u/Outofwlrds]

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

[u/Redditer51 → u/Outofwlrds]

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...