Comment on The black Snape controversy

lurch@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

• rumschlumpel@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  Severus Snape was a thin man with sallow skin, a large, hooked nose and yellow, uneven teeth. He usually dressed in flowing black robes which made him resemble “an overgrown bat”. He had shoulder-length, greasy black hair which framed his face in curtains, curling lips and dark, penetrating eyes that resembled tunnels.

  I’m honestly not quite sure about “sallow” (not a native speaker), but his hair certainly isn’t described like the hair of a black person, which AFAIK is universally curly unless they use straighteners, which would be incongruous with how little Snape cares for his appearance. Hooked noses don’t seem typical of black people, either.

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  • FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    My opinion is that it doesn’t matter how he was described, his race doesn’t impact the story

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    • rumschlumpel@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

      If done well, yeah. Definitely possible to do it so poorly that it does look kinda racist, though.

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• Canconda@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  Nope, it’s described as “Sallow” which is essentially an unhealthy complexion that any melanin level can exhibit.

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  • kofe@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

    I’d have to look for it, but I watched a video a while back for a course where an African woman described how she pictured most characters as white because representation in media, toys, etc. usually have white people. Obviously she’s not speaking for every African, but I doubt I’d have thought about it without her anecdotal testimony.

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• ohulancutash@feddit.uk ⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago

  Not explicitly, but it’s well-known that the author wrote with Alan Rickman in mind.

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