JK Rowling says fans complaining about black Hermione are a 'bunch of racists'

While the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is setting sales records, with 175,000 tickets sold in 24 hours, some are complaining about the casting of Noma Dumezweni, a black woman, as the adult version of Hermione Granger. Rowling says those objecting to a black Hermione in the new Harry Potter play are a “bunch of racists.”

In an recent interview, the author said "I had a bunch of racists telling me that because Hermione 'turned white'—that is, lost color from her face after a shock—that she must be a white woman, which I have a great deal of difficulty with. But I decided not to get too agitated about it and simply state quite firmly that Hermione can be a black woman with my absolute blessing and enthusiasm."

Rowling's co-creator on The Cursed Child, John Tiffany, said that he was shocked over the backlash they had received following Dumezweni's casting. He said that he hadn't "encountered Twitter's dark side," adding that the experience was awful and disappointing. He added that he stopped reading the comments after a while, acknowledging that "anonymity breeds horrors."

"But what shocked me was the way people couldn't visualise a non-white person as the hero of a story," Tiffany said. "It's therefore brilliant that this has happened," he added.

The Cursed Child, which follows an adult Harry Potter and his youngest son, Albus Severus, as they take on a new evil threatening the wizarding universe, will debut in London's West End later this month. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts One and Two opens at the Palace Theatre on July 30 with previews starting Tuesday.

radiotimes.com