by highsorcerer » Monday 28 July 2003 6:32:20am
Well, her experience with the centaurs probably taught her a great deal about "lesser beings" and "half breeds". In fact, she stands for everything the fountain of magical brethern stood for. However, the concept behind it (with the goblins, centaurs, and house-elves looking up to the witch and wizard) was a lie, and one too many wizards bought into.
Obviously, it's not a universal lie, because people like Hagrid and Dumbledore have earned the respect of some of their fellow creatures. Firenz told Harry Hagrid had earned his for the respect he gave his fellow creatures, and Dumbledore respected Dobby's desire for freedom, wages, and time off when no other wizard would. Harry's never treated a centaur, house-elf, or half-giant with any less respect than another human.
The whole concept back of it is something akin to race relations. While wizards don't seem to care about the color of skin. We know of three cross-race relationships; either Fred or George asked Angelina (black) to the Yule Ball, Ginny has picked Dean Thomas (black), and Harry has dated Cho Chang (asian). Obviously, this isn't true when it comes to different races. Hagrid's a half-giant and was scorned because of it. Mrs. Black took the portrait for doing things like daring to marry a muggle (how'd you like your sister to marry one, right?).
BTW, does it occur to anybody else that Umbridge was very likely to have been a Slytherin when she went to Hogwarts?
(turns into a parrot and flies away)