“Whatever the history books tell you, don’t listen to them. These wizards and witches, who believe themselves to be so progressive? They learned from their white counterparts. (Or perhaps it was the other way around.) Racism has always been present in the Wizarding World. It is just the privilege of the white that they don’t have to see it. We don’t have that privilege.
My initial research has revealed little of where this discrimination came from. Our people have been scrubbed from many of the records. Wizards travel much more than muggles do, but they think anyone they meet with skin darker than their own is “savage” and “uneducated”. They think their magic is better than anyone else’s.
They insist their Latin and Anglo Saxon spells are better than the Sanskrit spells that I know. They don’t understand that wands were made in Egypt long before white people had their hands on them. Two-way mirrors, flying carpets, astrology. All these things come from the lands these white people label as “backward”. They are so close-minded.
My father brought me to this country as a child. I was not even five years old. He had wanderlust after my mother had died and a thirst for knowledge. He thought there was much to learn from this small country. And there is! I do love it here. I love the harsh landscape, the mist that descends on the glens, the waves crashing on the rocks at the coast. As much as I long for India, I have fallen in love with this tiny place where my father brought me. This is why I suggested we build the castle near here.
I helped build this school to open young wizards’ and witches’ minds. No child is born racist. That’s what they say. I do believe that most of the time. I want to squash prejudice before it has the chance to take hold in their impressionable minds. I want to broaden their horizons. I want them to explore what they can do, and test and question what they think they know! They shouldn’t just be taught spells from their parents’ lap.
We have taken on such a huge task. These children are in our hands so we spent so long designing the school. It is our pride and joy. I spent hours designing the ever-changing floor plan, the secret passageways and the moving staircases. It inspires our students to be creative too. They can not only explore the castle here, but explore themselves.
There are two things that press constantly against my mind. One is the future of the school. After we are gone, will the castle fall to ruins? It is my dream for the legacy to last forever: generations of children being educated here. Finding a home, as Godric, Helga, Salazar and I all found. The second, which is much more important, is Salazar’s view on those from muggle families. The others and I are unsettled by him. I can feel the cracks forming in our relationship but I simply cannot let this go. I will not tolerate this kind of discrimination in the heart of the school. Who knows what it will lead to?
God knows what discrimination has led to in the past. I reverently hope that history will not repeat itself – but humans… we never seem to learn.”
– Extracts from Rowena’s notebook, 10th century AD.
SittingOverHereDreaming 