S2E50 - The Color of Magic: Race & the Wizarding World
Published: March 4, 2026
Duration: 1:10:25
In this Black History Month special, Professor Julian Wamble turns the lens on the five Black characters in the Harry Potter series, Angelina Johnson, Lee Jordan, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Blaise Zabini, and Dean Thomas, and asks a question the fandom rarely sits with: what does race actually mean in a world that insists it doesn't?
From Angelina Johnson's under-examined arc as a Black woman Quidditch captain managing a volatile white protagonist, to Lee Jordan's belonging tethered entirely to his proximity to the Weasleys, to Kingsley Shacklebolt's frictionless institutional ascent, to Blaise Zabini's unsettling full investment in a purity hierarchy...
From Angelina Johnson's under-examined arc as a Black woman Quidditch captain managing a volatile white protagonist, to Lee Jordan's belonging tethered entirely to his proximity to the Weasleys, to Kingsley Shacklebolt's frictionless institutional ascent, to Blaise Zabini's unsettling full investment in a purity hierarchy...