J. K. Rowling is getting called out over racism again on Twitter. This time it’s about the names and locations of her international wizarding schools.

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https://twitter.com/_remanso/status/1233886633436622849

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There are so many things wrong with this map holy shit — Bernie Experience Requiem (@RealDaddyMarx) March 2, 2020

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Using a fan-created map that is significantly easier to read than the official one, Twitter user @gayrauder asked people to reply with where in the world they’d go to school. The responses, with many users appearing to encounter Rowling’s take on global magical education for the first time, were less than positive.

according to this, which wizarding school should you attend? pic.twitter.com/9aE6dkujAK — marian (@gayrauder) February 29, 2020

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Many found the placement of the schools disturbingly Eurocentric. While Europe has four separate schools, the two most populous countries in the world, India, and China, (who between them have 36.17% of the world’s population), share one between them and several other countries. Africa. meanwhile, only has one formal school covering the entire sub-Saharan region (there are apparently a handful of small local schools which “are hard to keep track of”).

peak eurocentrism to give europe like 4 schools but nah every other continent gets about one — Blumen (@BlumenkranzCT) February 29, 2020

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Imagine School #10 tho… China and India are the two most populous countries in the world. — ΔCHOOΞ (@ACH00E) March 2, 2020

Most genetically, culturally and linguistically diverse place on earth. One school. — Thom the Boglord (@ThomasB73729298) March 2, 2020

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On top of that, the combination of countries she decided should share one school is horrifying—or at least deeply weird.

All of the Middle East being at a single school.



That, um, that’s optimistic. — 🇪🇺🇩🇪Phil🇺🇸🇬🇧 (@Lt_Fedora) March 2, 2020

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All of latin America (except from Mexico) lumped together with the Guyanes and Suriname? Like, why? God, I hate what jk Rowling is doing to her own universe. — soy cero creativa (@Sara_Angel_) March 1, 2020

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Some Harry Potter fans from Cuba, The Caribbean, and Mexico weren’t entirely happy that Rowling placed them with the American school instead of Castelobruxo in Latin America. While they may technically be part of the North American continent, culturally and linguistically speaking it doesn’t really make sense.

https://twitter.com/Analisto94/status/1234156349908373504

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https://twitter.com/Themincave1/status/1233936271766171652

y'all could be vibing with us and the rest of the latinos at castelobruxo but they just threw y'all with gringos….. the struggle — marina is ia (@moonmelies) March 1, 2020

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Bahamas, Mexico and Greater Antilles let’s plan mutiny and escape to Castelobruxo together pls ✨💪🏽 — min cave⁷ Joonie Day 🦀 (@Themincave1) March 1, 2020

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Then there’s the idea that Japan and Korea would share one school, located in Japan no less—something which has deeply troubling implications given the two countries’ history.

@zaccheus_e jk Rowling not understanding geopolitics, or anything really. Japanese and Koreans go to the same school??? — Masood Habib (@The_king_habiby) March 2, 2020

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everyone's accurately making fun of this but my favourite thing is Koreans having to go to Japan for wizard school, which seems fine and good https://t.co/b0GyPnUZv1 — Shin (@sistersinead) March 2, 2020

Even within Europe, it gets ridiculous. For some reason, the UK only has to share a school with Ireland (which is a problem in and of itself) while the rest of Europe has to split three between them.

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https://twitter.com/Drivermega/status/1234082771443879936

4 schools and still put Scandianavians with balkanians and Italy and Greece, that founded European civilizations, still don't have a school..



Definitely Ukcentrism. — Federica (@NowakixHiro) March 1, 2020

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Put italians in the cauldron too, I remember JK said that much 😂 that’s real a recipe for a disaster 😅 — Greta 👻 (@edieji95) March 1, 2020

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It’s still better than the rest of the world, of course, but it feels a bit disproportionate. As Twitter user @microwave_steak points out, the size of the population served by Hogwarts is only 66 million to Beauxbatons Academy of Magic’s 157 million, which is small fry to the 3 billion covered by School Number Ten in South Asia.

Population supported by each school

Hogwarts: 66m

Beauxbatons: 157m

School #10: 3 billion — microwave_steak (@microwave_steak) March 2, 2020

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https://twitter.com/lad_levi/status/1233877653272219649

The language issues alone would be incredible. While both the UK and Ireland do have English as an official language, none of the other regions covered by one school share a common tongue. Sub-Saharan Africa alone has twenty-four official state languages, and over a thousand that are actually spoken in daily life.

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https://twitter.com/gaysiriusblack/status/1233852395907690502

The languages are different too in castelobruxo — heaven (@trauma6th) February 29, 2020

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The language issue is also like ten times worse in that africa school — 0091, Four-Armed Bimbo Drone (@Lockark) March 2, 2020

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This just shows jk has no idea about geography or anything outside the UK, how tf is one school going to contain a whole ass continent? Or which language is gonna be used in the scandinavian/central eu school? All of India and China in one school? This is so stupid — disaster elf⭐️ mcr 4 life (@pokuliusz) March 1, 2020

Bizarrely, there also doesn’t seem to be a Spanish-speaking school despite it being one of the most commonly spoken languages in the world. The only school in Latin America is located in Portuguese-speaking Brazil, while European Spaniards go to Beauxbatons.

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https://twitter.com/poporrapax/status/1234067990410387457

How is the majority of Latin America supposed to study at Castelobruxo, when we speak Spanish and a small part even speaks French? Jk failed her geography classes — Soraya Montenegro, Mrs. Dev Patel (@mottisjandra) February 29, 2020

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All latin americans speak spanish except for brazil and WE have to speak portuguese? I think the fvck not — inner child⁷ (@softlytaeguk) February 29, 2020

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https://twitter.com/barbaraescreve/status/1234241802825355264

Spaniard mages going to a school in france. Yes of course. Very realistic. — Thymocyte (@thymocyte) March 1, 2020

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https://twitter.com/poporrapax/status/1234067990410387457

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People are distinctly unimpressed by Rowling’s use of language herself here, particularly in naming the schools in the world outside of Europe and North America. While the European Schools got vaguely interesting names, the Japanese and Korean school’s name roughly translates to “magic place,” while the Latin American one means “wizard castle”.

https://twitter.com/seumflower/status/1234078435519143936

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love how MENA, East Asian, and SEA/Oceanic countries have no cool names for schools…for some reason… — Kori (@KoriedAway) March 1, 2020

Any normal person would have come up with that name and thought "hmm did the wizards come after the portugese or with them? And what happened to the wizards that were there before" but nope — Crowsa Luxemburg (@quendergeer) March 2, 2020

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But worse is the fact that she actually didn’t name the schools serving MENA, most of Asia and Oceania, calling them Schools Number Nine, Ten, and Eleven instead. Which makes it seem even more egregious that she hadn’t assigned a reasonable number of schools to those regions. After all, if you’re not going to name or flesh them out, there’s no reason not to put a few more in.

this is so fucking funny. MENA and the part of the world with like almost three billion people don't even get names for their schools. Italians and Koreans are barred from wizarding. https://t.co/2M9ENZCHjc — Jane (@JaneOst_) March 2, 2020

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I attend the uhh *squinting* FILL THIS IN LATER school of racist mumbo jumbo — Crowsa Luxemburg (@quendergeer) March 2, 2020

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I love the one that’s just called school #9 — Amy I CEO of the marty fandom (@SushiRollPhan) March 1, 2020

Love how half of the world population has to share a school and it doesn't even have a name — Cherokee Jack (@Mewtopian69) March 2, 2020

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All in all, the verdict on her world-building is distinctly negative.

this is so badly separated im not even doing it 💀 — zey ☾ (@gothobiwan) March 1, 2020

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This brings up a question I didn't ever think about.



Did European witches and wizards participate in colonialism?



Also how come the British Isles and Japan and Korea get schools while China and India have to share? https://t.co/rRpu4A2KI7 — Happy UnionTines Day (@Donuthole2712) March 2, 2020

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They are different in all of them, it’s very bad world design — Mephistophelischer Schurke (@Spatux) March 1, 2020

With a lot of Twitter users calling it an example of colonialism and “everything that’s wrong with the English world view into one map.”

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Oh hey look. Somebody put everything wrong with the English worldview into one map. — Ammon A. (@ideasmanphd) March 2, 2020

As I said: Rowing is a fuckig colonialist. She still sees the entire world through the eyes of colonialism. https://t.co/ycuS2wGqGA — Alex – Vermisst #litcamp-Menschen (@KaenKazui) March 2, 2020



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There are 58 countries in Africa, and 1500-2000 different languages.

One school for all of them doesn't sound like education, that sounds like colonialism. https://t.co/DnCs2Sf3hZ — Shyni (@TheTepidMess) March 2, 2020

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I can smell British Colonialism from here. https://t.co/aXQC0rghY4 — Exosfera 🔻 (@exosferablog) February 29, 2020

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