On fandom's mixed race Harry (or Aloo Gobi Harry as I like to call him)
Since we are talking about this.
I am half Desi/half white, and OMG brown Harry is my ROMAN EMPIRE. Because once again, there’s so much focus on his skin being brown (speaking for myself, I am pale AF so once again this is a form of essentialism that if you have any desi 'blood' you must present in a certain way). Also, the massive hyperfocus on one side of his identity gives "one drop rule" (which can be a part of navigating the world as a mixed-race person) but in this instance is more focused on his love of Aloo Gobi rather than how systemic racism shapes people’s existence.
Being mixed race is very complicated and becomes its own identity. And while I can’t speak for everyone, there are unique things to navigate: growing up not looking like you belong to your parents, being seen as other by both sides of your family, having your features constantly commented on, etc. On one side of the family, people might think you have it easier in some ways due to proximity to whiteness and on the other (and on both), people not understanding that you still inhabit a racialised body.
And even if you're not brown enough for one side to fully claim you, you're still not white enough to go unnoticed in institutional spaces. You don’t belong in either direction and everyone somehow makes sure you know it. That tension (of always being half belonging) sits in your body, whether you want it there or not. You still face racism, but because of your 'half whiteness' it is often brushed off by everyone.
I went to an almost all-white private school (just as Harry grows up in what we can assume is an all-white town in Surrey), and OMG, the way being mixed race made people uncomfortable is still something I’m unpacking to this day. Especially when puberty hit and that prejudice mixed with sexual desire—it was a MESS (either being desired as an 'exotic' bird or having people be extra vitriolic because the dissonance was eating at them).
These nuances are never addressed in the vast majority of mixed Harry portrayals or if they are, it’s usually in passing, or reduced to surface-level aesthetic markers like food, skin tone, or "exotic" features. How harry would address these identity tensions are never explored or even addressed (because he would face racism and a desire to connect with both his parents' cultures). But no lets yap about him loving curry and how caramel his skin is.....
The complexities of mixed identity (of not fully belonging anywhere) deserve more than headcanon crumbs. If we are going to imagine Harry as mixed race, then we need to sit with all that entails, not just go on an on about brown skin tone like you're writing copy for a fucking tanning advert or an article that Victorian Eugenists would have salivated over.
My identity is not a fucking aesthetic.
This is such a crucial conversation. I realize in my agreement of this post I referenced a lot of food culture. However, that is because thst is how my mother in law and I bonded.
Being dual white / desi family is so much more complex than my wearing a saree to Diwali. It’s more complex than learning to cook with my spice tin.
It’s facing community push back when my husband didn’t get an arranged marriage. It’s being the only English speaker in rooms. It’s being comfortable being segregated at events between the men and women.
It’s challenging my family’s racist comments when they don’t even recognize they are being offensive. It’s being patient explaining our ways of using silverware aren’t better than their ways of using their hands. It’s noticing micro ways my children need to walk between two cultures and checking in with them to know there is no right or wrong way to assimilate or express.
It’s learning to sit in rooms in different ways. To code switch. It’s learning respect for where someone is from runs deep. It’s not trying to assume your ways are right because they are the only ways you know.
It’s making so.many.mistakes. with comments you don’t even hear. It’s owning your white-centric views and challenging your internal assumption of values.
This conversation from @artemisia-black is so critically important. Not just on community representation. But the history as to why we think the Anglo-way is inherently “more cultured” or “more correct” and the other way needs to be “shown” or “taught”.
I have an auditory processing disorder. I have a speech impediment. I struggle to learn Gujarati and can understand well when it’s slow but mostly rely on other cues.
I regularly see my mother in law down on herself for her English. And I remind her. You are the bilingual one not me. Every word you say, it’s because you are so much more dedicated and brilliant than I became.
We can’t judge someone’s worth or skill by assimilation.
