As someone who has attended the midnight showing of all the previous Harry Potter movies, I'm sad to report I have yet to see the final movie. The past couple of movies, I've gone to see with my sister, but alas, she's in Japan. AND she's already seen it-thankfully in English and not dubbed in Japanese (yes that's an option).
I have, however, talked about Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 quite a bit around my family. Sophia is fascinated by the story. She often asks me to tell her about the story of Harry Potter, even though I've explained that she's too young for it. When she's older, we're going to have a Harry Potter read-a-thon.
In the meantime, she'll ask me questions like, "Why does the bad guy want to kill Harry Potter? Why is he so mean?"
I started to explain about Voldemort and why he was so angry. (SPOILER ALERT if you haven't read the books) As I relayed to Sophia that Voldemort hated Muggles (normal humans, for those of you who aren't into Harry Potter), especially the Muggles who were gifted with magical powers.
I have no idea why I decided to turn it into a teaching moment, but I compared Voldemort's dislike of Mudbloods (the derogatory term for Muggles with magical powers), I realized I could talk to her about race. Sort of.
She couldn't quite grasp the idea of Muggles with magical powers versus the humans without any power at all. After explaining that some were just born that way, I compared it to skin color. What if people didn't like you because of your brown skin? I asked her. You can't help how you're born-it's who you are, right?
That's when it clicked for her. We haven't really talked about the concept of race in our home. We talk about skin color, ethnicity, and culture. That's how I want her to see people. Not as this idea of race, but I want her to learn and appreciate others' cultures. Not only do we celebrate Vietnamese festivals and Christian holidays such as Christmas, we have good friends who teach her about Jewish holidays. When she picks up books from the library about Ramadan, I don't ask her to put it back. We read it together.
After the light bulb went off, she defended the Muggles staunchly. I think I'm going to have a Potterhead on my hands in a few years.
I'm so proud.
Photo via Warner Bros.
