We are affected by our surroundings whether we are aware of it or not, and our society, environment, and our parents instill a set of values within us as we grow up and as we continue to mature in the future. Not only do we learn values from the people around us, but discrimination is also learned from a very young age; this is something that molds our world: it is taught to us by our parents, our school systems, our churches, and ultimately, by our society. Within the Harry Potter series, discrimination is present through classifying pure-bloods being superior to half-bloods, muggle borns, and muggles themselves. Specifically, students at Hogwarts who are pure-bloods believe they are superior to students who are half-bloods or muggle born. This discrimination also spawns from Lord Voldemort with his hatred for “impure” wizards, and with many wizards and witches following him, the ideology that pure-bloods are the strongest and superior, his followers fall victim to this type of discrimination. The discrimination of how magical their blood is, is a stigma that the unjust wizards in the magic world have created, and thus, over time, and with a persistent society towards ending this idea, it can be destroyed. Throughout this website, I will argue that because discrimination is a learned behavior, it can be unlearned as well, and through specific examples taken from the Harry Potter series written by J.K. Rowling, we are able to further understand how the wizarding world is making amends to end this discrimination, and how the future generations will be able to be more open minded and understand that the level of magical blood does not make one superior or inferior to another.
The video above is the final duel between Voldemort and Harry during the battle of Hogwarts. During this scene, Voldemort's final horcrux, Nagini, is killed by Neville Longbottom with the sword of Gryffindor. When Voldemort is defeated, the death eaters went in to hiding and they took their bigoted, small minded views with them. In the later generations of wizards, the idea of discrimination that “half-bloods” and “mud-bloods” or muggle borns, severely lowered and this can parallel into the real world. As the current generations begin to get older, their views of discrimination will begin to fade and essentially, their racist views will no longer have a following and they will no longer exist.