The blood tolerance thing is a bit of a bummer, but a No-Maj -heavy population might still allow for other sorts of conflict, as Rhaegar said. Maybe escaped Muggle-born slaves would be more inclined to learn traditional African witchcraft as opposed to wand magic, etc., leading to highly segregated communities in the modern era. A magical melting pot like, say, New Orleans or Harlem could prove the exception, but for the most part, one's magical tradition/ethnicity would stand in as a substitute for blood status.

Fat chance of that happening now, though

 

[ Guardian article ]
Apparently you're not allowed to use world's cultural heritage as inspiration without written permission from people entitled to safeguard it... so ask pope if Catholic references in your fic treat the biggest Christian church with proper respect. And me or your friendly neighbourhood Atheist if your blasphemers are not caricatures of the marginalised minority that we are.

And no skinwalking for the likes of Rowling (and Briggs & half the authors of American urban fantasy, I guess...)

 

Haters can go off themselves as far as I'm concerned. She went through this bullshit when she first published her books. As far as I'm concerned I'm just going to enjoy what she posts as new work and hope that the idiocy in the world doesn't shut her down.

 

So I guess the Scourers and their descendants are the new bad guys for the upcoming Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them trilogy. I suppose were getting Muggles vs Wizards whether we like it or not.

 

Just wait for commando teams equipped in enchanted rifles and rune inscribed bullets :fire
Seriously Rowling seems to be hitting all the buttons of people here like she deliberately decided to troll DLP. (JK are you reading this ?)

I had the knee-jerk reaction at the beginning thinking about new stuff because of all that bad fanfiction writers overusing those same ideas to the point they became cliche for us, but most people don't bother with fanfiction so it won't be same for them.The overuse of ideas by bad writers doesn't make those ideas bad themselves necessarily.Like In case of wandless magic there is clear downside to it (bad at transfiguration & charms,harder to pull off etc...) so it balances out in the end.

 

unorfind you're assuming an awful lot about the general population of DLP. Don't. You're not a representative, and you onviously don't know DLP well enough if you think we'd hate this with no consideration for context or execution.

For me personally, I have no issue with wizarding america not sharing in blood purism. Social issues are dependent entirely on the community that births them, and wizarding america is simply too young to have blood purity as a widespread belief, not to mention that it's comprised mainly of muggleborns and their families.

What bothers me is that Jo basically confirmed all the tropes regarding wandless magic; possible but very hard and a sign of skill that amazes people. Reasonable, perhaps, but I was hoping for something a bit more ... involved. Less simplistic or clear-cut.

 

I'm not assuming anything, I was talking mainly about my own reaction and probably could have worded it better.And about wandless magic it's clear that wands are better/more convenient from what we know so far (Charms and Transfiguration are pretty big parts of magic).
Also as upside the ambiguity leaves more room for Fanfiction writers to make Wandless magic how they would like it to be

 

I have absolutely no problems with anything Jo has introduced.

I have always treated Pottermore as having an equal canon status as the books, if not even higher.

I look forward to her next writings about Wizarding America.

 

Part 3
Rappaport's Law
By J.K. Rowling
In 1790, the fifteenth President of MACUSA, Emily Rappaport, instituted a law designed to create total segregation of the wizarding and No-Maj communities. This followed one of the most serious breaches of the International Statute of Secrecy, leading to a humiliating censure of MACUSA by the International Confederation of Wizards. The matter was that much more serious because the breach came from within MACUSA itself.

In brief, the catastrophe involved the daughter of President Rappaport’s trusted Keeper of Treasure and Dragots (the Dragot is the American wizarding currency and the Keeper of Dragots, as the title implies, is roughly equivalent to the Secretary of the Treasury). Aristotle Twelvetrees was a competent man, but his daughter, Dorcus, was as dim as she was pretty. She had been a poor student at Ilvermorny and at the time of her father’s ascension to high office was living at home, hardly ever performing magic, but concentrating mainly on her clothes, the arrangement of her hair and parties.

One day, at a local picnic, Dorcus Twelvetrees became greatly enamoured of a handsome No-Maj called Bartholomew Barebone. Unbeknownst to Dorcus, Bartholomew was a Scourer descendant. Nobody in his family was magic, but his belief in magic was profound and unshakeable, as was his conviction that all witches and wizards were evil.

Totally oblivious to the danger, Dorcus took Bartholomew’s polite interest in her ‘little tricks’ at face value. Led on by her beau’s artless questions, she confided the secret addresses of both MACUSA and Ilvermorny, along with information about the International Confederation of Wizards and all the ways in which these bodies sought to protect and conceal the wizarding community.

Having gathered as much information as he could from Dorcus, Bartholomew stole the wand she had obligingly demonstrated for him, showed it to as many pressmen as he could find, then gathered together armed friends and set out to persecute and, ideally, kill all the witches and wizards in the vicinity. Bartholomew further printed leaflets giving the addresses where witches and wizards congregated and sent letters to prominent No-Majs, some of whom felt it necessary to investigate whether there were indeed ‘evil occult parties’ happening at the places described.

Giddy with his mission to expose witchcraft in America, Bartholomew Barebone overstepped himself by shooting at what he believed were a group of MACUSA wizards, but which turned out to be No-Majs who had the bad fortune to leave a suspected building while he was watching it. Fortunately nobody was killed, and Bartholomew was arrested and imprisoned for the crime without any need for MACUSA involvement. This was an enormous relief to MACUSA who were struggling to cope with the massive fallout of Dorcus’s indiscretions.

Bartholomew had disseminated his leaflets widely, and a few newspapers had taken him seriously enough to print pictures of Dorcus’s wand and note that it ‘had a kick like a mule’ if waved. The attention focused on the MACUSA building was so intense that it was forced to move premises. As President Rappaport was forced to tell the International Confederation of Wizards at a public inquiry, she could not be sure that every last person privy to Dorcus’s information had been Obliviated. The leak had been so serious that the after-effects would be felt for many years.

Although many in the magical community campaigned to have her imprisoned for life or even executed, Dorcus spent only a year in jail. Thoroughly disgraced, utterly shellshocked, she emerged into a very different wizarding community and ended her days in seclusion, a mirror and her parrot her dearest companions.

Dorcus’s indiscretions led to the introduction of Rappaport’s Law. Rappaport’s Law enforced strict segregation between the No-Maj and wizarding communities. Wizards were no longer allowed to befriend or marry No-Majs. Penalties for fraternising with No-Majs were harsh. Communication with No-Majs was limited to that necessary to perform daily activities.

Rappaport’s Law further entrenched the major cultural difference between the American wizarding community and that of Europe. In the Old World, there had always been a degree of covert cooperation and communication between No-Maj governments and their magical counterparts. In America, MACUSA acted totally independently of the No-Maj government. In Europe, witches and wizards married and were friends with No-Majs; in America, No-Majs were increasingly regarded as the enemy. In short, Rappaport’s Law drove the American wizarding community, already dealing with an unusually suspicious No-Maj population, still deeper underground.

 

so rather than discriminating against muggleborn they discriminate against muggles (humans will always find someone to discriminate )
No that surprising considering previous updates, seems like this conflict will be part of the new movie.

 

An interesting change from the English muggle v wizard dynamic. Pure blood sumpremacist wizards in England despise mugleborns for their muggle origins regardless of their ability to do magic.

Wizards in the US fear and dislike muggles (I refuse to say No-maj) to an extreme, but even if you come from a muggle family, an ability to do magic elevates you above the hate.

This reminds me very much of the differences between English and US cultural perceptions toward Old Money and New Money that arose after the industrial revolution. New money families weren't really looked down upon in the US to the degree that they were in England. Money in the US basically equated to class.

 

This lends more credibility to my belief that a while new sub genre of FanFiction is about to pop up. The star-crossed witch/no-maj lovers.

 

On one hand, this kills off the idea that Magical America is a perfect paradise with techno-magic.

On the other hand, how long will it take before a Romeo and Juliet fanfic arises from this?

 

This just keeps getting better and better. I'm glad to see America isn't perfect.

 

It's fantastic to see. How fucking often has the stupid trope of "lol every but where the story is, is a better place" happened

 

It does seem to be a more realistic and flawed world which is great for the fandom. I just know it's going to be a romance writers heaven.

 

Sad to say but I think you're actually better off as a muggle in the Magical UK than you are in the USA.

 

Why do you say that? MACUSA enforces complete separation from muggles, not their extermination or otherwise discomfort.

The only actual different between the magical UK and MACUSA from the viewpoints of muggles is that a few more muggles in the UK know about magic, but little else.

An argument could even be made that complete separation works better (and safer) for both sides. Of course we'll have to wait for the final piece, which might reveal something new regarding this.

 

Does that also include the families of muggle born to be separated entirely from their children as well? We know that Hermione as a muggle born was still allowed to interact with her family. It seems to me that MACUSA would be even more in favor of that than the UK's ministry.

 

I'm not holding my breath, but I hope she touches on Grindelwald tomorrow. I can see the wizards of North America and maybe even MACUSA itself supporting his ideals and maybe even his methods.