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I don't see why people care whether someone is muggle-born or not. Does it make any difference? Please illuminate me, I don't understand.

phantom42
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  • And why people care if someone has blue blood or is from common people. It's simply believing you are better because of your origin, tempting if you don't have any special talents or have complexes. –  Jan 03 '14 at 21:26
  • I don't know why this is marked a duplicate. It isn't the same question at all. Related, but completely different. – Donald.McLean Jan 04 '14 at 16:19
  • @Donald.McLean DVK's answer, with quotes from Rowling, seems to fully answer this one... – Izkata Jan 04 '14 at 23:48
  • @Izkata DVK's answer explains the rules used by the prejudiced members of magical society, but it does not address the actual differences in magical ability which is an entirely different question (the one that Granger Girl actually asked, I would like to point out). – Donald.McLean Jan 05 '14 at 02:07
  • @Donald.McLean DVK's answer is all about "why do they care?", which seems to me to be what this question is about... – Izkata Jan 05 '14 at 02:29
  • @Izkata No, the question is "Does it make any difference?" Which is clearly asking about whether or not it actually means anything in terms of magical ability. – Donald.McLean Jan 05 '14 at 05:07

3 Answers3

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It's magical racism, basically. A reason to consider others below your station. The worst of the pure-bloods are akin to Nazis in there desire to keep Muggles or Mudbloods in their place. That place being servitude or even death.

This statue at the Ministry of Magic depicts Muggles being crushed.

Community
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Meat Trademark
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  • This has nothing to do with mudbloods, because it's about wizards vs. muggles. – vsz Jan 03 '14 at 20:30
  • The answer does. Pure-bloods certainly seem to hate Mudbloods only second to Muggles. Just the term Mudblood is an insult. The image is just there to show how extreme the hatred can get. – Meat Trademark Jan 03 '14 at 20:33
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    The question asks whether there is a difference between pure bloods and "mudbloods". Obviously, there is a difference between wizards and muggles, but there is no difference (in magical abilities) between pure bloods and mudbloods. However, some wizards (mistakenly) believe there IS a difference, this is why they "care whether someone is muggle-born or not." – vsz Jan 03 '14 at 20:38
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    "I don't see why people care whether someone is muggle-born or not." Because they are snobs. I don't understand what in my answer you disagree with. Everything you said I agree with but tried to sum up a little more succinctly. It seems very akin to racism to me. Pure-bloods are like Aryans or the KKK or any other hate group who detest "cross-breeding." It seems like she's asking why people care. Given her last question, she knows the difference. I think the equating with Nazis is apt. It covers the hate, the desire to maintain purity (Aryans) and the sickening Pride. – Meat Trademark Jan 03 '14 at 20:54
  • Actually, I'd say it's more like blue bloods nobleman against red blood peasants, which were thought to be unworthy of education or being soldiers in middle ages. –  Jan 03 '14 at 21:24
  • That's an interesting analogy. I'm inclined to agree to some extent, but considering the lengths of the Deatheaters (presumably all pure-bloods) I do lean a little more to genocidal scum like Pol Pot or Hitler. (For once, comparing someone to Hitler on the internet is not being a troll!) – Meat Trademark Jan 03 '14 at 21:39
  • However, in Harry Potter's case there is concrete driving factor behind it: The fact that muggles are incapable of magic, and the (apparently mistaken) belief derived from it, that mixing purebloods with muggleborn will weaken magic ability. Pureblood wizards who hate muggleborns are not "HAHAHA I'm evil!", they most likely sincerely believe that what they do is beneficial or at least necessary to save the wizarding world from decay. – vsz Jan 03 '14 at 21:45
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    I don't think Hitler considered himself evil, either. A lot of bad people think they are doing good. Preserving a bloodline is not hard to see how someone could consider it noble. Sad but true. – Meat Trademark Jan 03 '14 at 21:53
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A lot of wizards think muggles are inferior, because they are (of course) incapable of magic.

So there are wizards who think that wizards who are born to muggle parents (mudbloods) cannot become so good at magic as pure blood wizards (wizards who don't have muggle ancestors). They think mixed marriages between muggles and wizards are "thinning" or "contaminating" wizard blood and are detrimental to the wizarding world. However, they are wrong, because (for example) Hermione is very capable in magic, despite having only muggles as parents.

vsz
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Some aspects of human genetics (such as height) are complex and poorly understood, but generally tall parents have tall children and short parents have short children but there are constant exceptions. Some aspects are even less well understood, such as human intelligence. Some aspects of human genetics are simpler and now better understood, such as certain forms of color-blindness.

Magical society, on the other hand, does not have scientists, or even science (as we know it) and so many of the behaviors and expectations of wizards and witches are shaped by the vague preconceptions that human society has evolved where it comes to genetics.

Whether or not a person has any magical ability appears to have a strong (though abnormal) genetic basis in that most muggles have muggle children and most wizards have wizard children. The abnormal part is that if magical ability were a recessive gene, then marriages with mixed muggle/wizard parents would produce children who had a 50/50 shot, at best, of being wizards. Instead, children of mixed marriages are almost all wizards.

Note that if magical ability were a dominant gene, it would not be possible for two muggles to have a wizard child.

There is some evidence in the novels that strong magical ability does flow through certain genetic lines (Voldemort is a descendant of Slytherin after all), but on the other hand, there is no compelling evidence that this ability is either diluted when mixed with non-magical blood or strengthened by pure-blood unions.

The bottom line though is that prejudice against muggle-borns appears to be pure prejudice based on a traditions that are without merit. The strength of one's magical ability, like many human abilities, is more a matter of interest and drive than of genetics.

Donald.McLean
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