the thing that fucks me up most with harry potter headcanon as a mixed chicana w/ native+”mestiza” roots is that “purebloods” already wiped us the fuck out. you can play harry potter and pureblood as a metaphor for british classism all you want but don’t tell me that the Salem Witches academy wasn’t built on the site of native americans lands, don’t tell me that european wizards and witches didn’t come to the americas and slaughter those who weren’t secretive about their magic, who didn’t have muggles, don’t tell me they didn’t slaughter us/the american magical peoples, they didn’t convert as many of our ancestors to god-fearing religions as possible because then our brothers and sisters would fear the witches and force magic back into secrecy and out of the hands of our kings and queens, our chiefs, our sages, shamans, healers, don’t tell me that spanish and british and french wizards didn’t come to the americas and round us up, ripping the magic users away from their families to be schooled in proper wand-using magics instead of wandless or wordless or magic by other means in boarding schools which humiliated us, which stole our native tongues and obliterated our heritage and our native power and then mocked us for when we continued to strive to fit our own cultures into their tiny tiny molds
don’t tell me that abuelas and abuelos don’t whisper to their grandchildren the old spells they still know, that in secret, we still cling to magic that they could never understand
voldemort as a singular villain isn’t so scary when your people were raped, enslaved, and slaughtered across two continents for hundreds of years
imagine the bitter laughter of the elderly curandera — ay, now they’re worried about who is being killed
imagine the blood your headcanon is built upon
This is where I’m going with my Shafiq Twenty-Eight series, though it’s kind of a class divide on multiple angles. On the one hand, you have the general population of Bidesh (magical Bengal/Bangladesh area) who think the Bilatis (Brits) are stupid for trying to impose some sort of separation between magical and muggle and thinking that magic is so clearcut.
But on the other hand, you have the upper-class Shafiqs (who in my fic are more like feudal landlord types that may be loosely related to each other) who subtly look down on the commoners and disregard them as farmers or pheasants (though that’s not all the common folk do). I don’t think their disdain is malicious per se - ignorant condescending benevolence, perhaps. They didn’t get around to building a school and codified magical system until relatively recently, and most of that is because they notice that the commoners are itching for a revolt and the school is their means to quell the masses (especially if they offer scholarships to the high-achieving poor kids, like Ayesha’s mother Sabila).
The heart of jadu in Bidesh is in their culture and literature and language, which permeates the country and is the main reason for Bangladesh’s liberation and existence (hence the problematic nature of trying to impose the Statute on them). However, a lot of the practical skills of jadu,knowing how to harness that culture and language into magic, comes from the bede, the boat people, the villagers. They haven’t forgotten.
And in some way the Shafiqs, like Begum Indrajala, know this. Their job as a Shafiq is actually to be a trustee to this magical knowledge, to ensure that the culture stays intact and the heart still keeps beating. But somewhere along the way they got power-hungry, they got patronizing, they though protecting their people meant treating them as little children. They chased glory and forgot greatness.
Even as they fight off the British and Pakistani colonialists (magical or otherwise) for trying to suppress their culture, they are doing damage to themselves.
I was just on the phone with my mum, who didn’t quite get what I was trying to explore with the class divides in my story. She thought that Sabila being a bedewas nonsensical - surely she’s a lot more sophisticated than that (well, it was mostly because Sabila is inspired by my mum somewhat and she thought I was calling her uneducated). She also questioned my use of casi for the commoners because that’s what you call really backwards village uneducated folk. But that’s kind of the point - they’re actually the most educated out of everyone, but the Shafiqs in power don’t really respect that because the commoner education doesn’t look like the Shafiq education - it doesn’t look like their private tutors, it doesn’t look like Hogwarts or Durmstrang, it doesn’t look like the Cadet College. You want to be seen as worthy? Follow the structure. None of this loosey goosey business.
I’m also trying to figure out how this fits with the Trixie/1920s Bengali Harlem storyline. Her mother is from Louisiana Voodoo stock, so she would have learnt a lot of old magic that way, and her dad is a Shafiq, but pre-Cadet College. I’m thinking of how in Malaysia you’d have a lot of people that have hereditary title-names like Raja or Puteri or Syed and usually that hints to some royal lineage but they’re so far removed that functionally they’re like regular folk. Considering the way family trees work in Bangladesh I figure that Trixie’s dad is more of a distant relative than a direct descendent, having some cousin or other study at The Big Magic Schools, relatively middle-class by Bangladeshi standards - I mean, he’s an international merchant, he has a fair amount of money, but he hasn’t completely forsaken his roots.
I know stopdropandbeauty was planning on exploring issues of colonization and imperialism and native genocide in potential HP headcanon/fic, and I feel like some of the other headcanon blogs have touched on that one way or another. HP Headcanon Tumblrs seem to be a trend now, so maybe someone will pipe up and write something along those lines!
(also I wonder if part of the original meta is running under the assumption that only White people can be from Pureblood families, at least in JKR’s stated canon. I pounced on Shafiq when I saw it in the Sacred 28 list because that’s my last name, it’s a name rooted in a rich cultural history that is not White European, it’s real. The only other real-sounding last name on there is Abbott though I couldn’t be wrong. And there’s also Shacklebolt, and the one canon character we meet from that line is Black.)
Hey, everyone, I’m so happy to be back online - I think I was only gone for a week so that announcement was very extra of me - and to be introducing my first writing challenge! I’m so honored and flattered that so many people enjoy my work, and I’m incredibly grateful for your support since I joined this community. Tumblr is my greatest escape, and you’ve made it a very welcome and comforting one.
A sense of community and friendship is particularly important in these trying times, and I extend my heartfelt prayers to everyone struggling right now. I’m here to listen if there’s anything you need to say, and I’m sorry I can’t do much more than be a metaphorical shoulder to cry on, and to offer this distraction as a brief reprieve from whatever you might be going through.
In order to present a gift of relief, and to share and create more stories of heroism - not that any of it can ever compare to the courage displayed by our health professionals and essential workers these days - and to honor and promote our collective of Marvel fanfic writers, I’ve decided to host a writing challenge. You don’t have to follow me to participate - although that would be appreciated - you just need to follow the rules I’ve outlined under the cut. If you need clarification on anything, don’t hesitate to ask! I hope you’ll join, and I look forward to seeing what everyone comes up with.
Congrats on this amazing milestone, Ayesha! ❤️ Your talent is out of this world and there will be thousands of more to come because if there’s someone I personally admire very much on this site it is you, and everyone who isn’t following you is missing out big time ❤️ sending lots and lots of love!
Many times on this blog, i made the case that the 1887 novel SHE was the first true, recognizable fantasy novel, in much the same way Frankenstein was the first true scifi novel, and something ornery, quarrelsome, grouchy, and Professor Challenger-esque in me is unhappy I never get any pushback on that damn bold claim. To quote Gene Wolfe, “the armies of this age are weak.”
