The ex put the photos in a place that is supposed to be secure. If he kept physical photos in a shoe box under his bed and someone broke into his house and stole them, would you still throw him in jail?

“Quarantine and outnumber” is an excellent mantra.

For the third and final time, I am not interested in definitely proving that Hermione is any specific race. I am simply saying that the very scant descriptions of her in the text do not preclude reading her as black.

None of what you said negates reading Hermione as black, your expectations notwithstanding.

I disagree that Hermione being Muggle-born is “lampshaded” but that’s neither here nor there. My point is that there’s no legitimate reason why Hermione can’t be black.

I can’t really answer for how you personally pictured the character. Rue is described in ways consistent with how black people are described and the author explicitly said she’s black. But even “swarthy ethnic” is emphatically not the blonde, blue-eyed white girl that detractors imagined, which was my point.

Well, in the US at least, 16% of people with the last name Granger self-identify as black. Hermione being a Muggle-born witch is far far less likely (0.0003% by some counts) than her being black. If one is believable, why not the other?

Nope. Rue has “dark brown skin and eyes” in the book. The author also explicitly said Rue is African-American. People mad about the casting choice have absolutely no leg to stand on.

And of course these are the same people who were mad about Amandla Stenberg playing Rue in the Hunger Games movie, even though Rue is explicitly black in the goddam book.

I would caution you against over-correcting. Writing characters of color is tricky for white people (and writing queer characters is tricky for non-queer people and writing women is difficult for men and so on) but that doesn’t mean you should just throw your hands up and make everyone white.

Did they also bring up that single line in one book about Hermione’s face going “pale with fright” or whatever? That’s the usual “justification” I’ve seen.

I can’t say whether SAT/ACT graders would mark off for it (I’m sure they would because why miss an opportunity to be a dick?) but singular they was accepted grammar up until the late 18th century.

I wish I could give you another star just for this line alone:

If that’s the case then I approve the sentiment but don’t condone the execution.

I agree with you that this is abhorrent but I think it’s important to be clear what these people are trying to argue. The argument King’s making is not that fetuses are citizens but rather that they are people and therefore protected under this portion of the 14th amendment (emphasis added):

This is a good point I hadn’t considered until recently.

I have admittedly never been to a concert by this artist but I doubt she requires women of color to move to the front. So if your group is at the front you could all move back together and if your group is in the back you could choose to remain together in the back. I think the message is less “audience, separate…

You deserve more stars for the excellent and rarely-seen Endor Leia.

I’m less worried about him becoming president (though I think you’re perhaps underestimating the number of voters that would welcome a “sane” alternative Republican option) and more worried about him having a broader national platform with which to pretend his ideas are “moderate” or “reasonable”.