
(Shutterstock) Goblins and economic scapegoating Studios, in London, England, walking past goblins of Gringotts Wizarding Bank. But the target of scapegoating must be credible, meaning that who we choose to blame will draw upon existing fears and prejudices. Scapegoating involves shifting blame onto a group for societal issues and fabricating the need to expel or control the threat. My research has examined how past patterns of scapegoating persist into the modern day through our (often unknowing) participation. We should be concerned when threads of blame that trace back at least as far as the Middle Ages are visible today. It is also important to identify when antisemitism is normalized to the point of becoming habitual. It is necessary to call out overt antisemitism. The number of violent antisemitic incidents in Canada rose more than 700 per cent in 2021 compared to 2020.

This normalizes hatred and violence against Jews, which, according to the Anti-Defamation League in the United States, is already at its highest level recorded since 1979. Hogwarts Legacy maintains the associations built into antisemitic tropes.

The antisemitic tropes present in Hogwarts Legacy have such deep roots in our shared cultural repertoire that they remain invisible to us, or we remain indifferent to them.
