#BlackHogwarts Trends On Twitter, And J.K. Rowling Responds, ‘Seeing Them And Loving Them’
The hashtag #BlackHogwarts began trending on Twitter on Thursday night and majorly diversified the fictional Wizard school. Twitter imagined what kind of place Hogwarts would be if it consisted of predominately black students and professors.
Twitter took the hashtag #BlackHogwarts by storm and proposed new Hogwarts teachers, like Samuel Jackson as Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall portrayed by California Democrat Maxine Waters (who has boasted about “reclaiming time”), and Disney’s That’s So Raven’s Raven Baxter for divination. Meanwhile, Snoop Dogg was imagined to portray a professor who heads the department of herbology, according to BBC Newsbeat. Twitter users even named Trump as Lord Voldemort.
Many on Twitter placed rappers into the mix, including Birdman as Lord Voldemort who is also known in the movie as “He Who Must Not Be Named.” Users linked Birdman’s viral video in which he told others to “put some respect” on his name when talking about him.
Social media users posted some pretty hilarious GIFs about what it would be like inside the Hogwarts cafeteria, while others imagined more serious scenarios in which Hogwarts was under attack.
Thousands on Twitter tweeted J.K. Rowling, the beloved author of the Harry Potter series. One Twitter user asked if Rowling was witnessing the hilarity, when she responded, “Seeing them and loving them.”
Rowling’s response was retweeted over 18,000 times and liked over 61,000 times.
Seeing them and loving them. #BlackHogwarts https://t.co/UZTVwmh7Uy
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) January 11, 2018
One Twitter user proposed “invisibility Timbs” or clear Timberland boots instead of Potter’s invisibility cloak.
Invisibility Timbs instead of the Cloak. #BlackHogwarts pic.twitter.com/olkhHMa59N
— TJ Sanders (@TubaTeej) January 12, 2018
Beyonce’s fashion sense was the go-to meme to show the way girls would dress on the first day of school after being sorted into Gryffindor.
Another runner-up for the astronomy professor in Harry Potter was Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Y'all already know who the astronomy professor is….Neil Degrasse Tyson, Ravenclaw #BlackHogwarts pic.twitter.com/wZkcv07vem
— Alecia Ah-lee-see-ah (@abestesq) January 12, 2018
One Twitter user posted a collage of a complete cast overhaul of an all African-American Harry Potter cast.
Y’all already know what’s up #BlackHogwarts pic.twitter.com/mObdgvDa0Z
— mahlia ??. (@MahliaBrown) January 12, 2018
Interesting enough, the concept of an all black Harry Potter cast was created by writers and social media influencers Keith and Kenny Lucas. The duo had an idea for an animated TV series on a black Hogwarts centering around two brothers who found themselves stuck inside of a magical historically black college. However, television networks passed on the idea because it was “too weird.”
During an interview with Vibe magazine, the brothers suggested an alternative world that was filled with “black magic.” In April of 2017, the duo said that they were in the works of developing a show with the cable network TBS and described the series to take place in an alternate universe.
Here's how Harry Potter might look with a more diverse cast, according to people using #BlackHogwarts ?https://t.co/dF4VBDVZSZ pic.twitter.com/ZNly4tVURL
— BBC Newsbeat (@BBCNewsbeat) January 12, 2018
They said the universe is a historically black magic universe which could be similar to an HBCU. However, they consider it more of a hybrid of a magic university where students will learn black magic and how to defend wizards against the universe. The duo said the show is promised to be “super trippy.”
