The theme of good versus evil is an overarching one in the book and the series, and it plays out on an epic scale. Rowling makes these ideas relatable by framing them within the very real context of racial discrimination, even as she stays true to the fantastical world in which the books are set.

Voldemort, the overarching villain of the series, is portrayed as a supremacist with radical views about blood purity. His obsession with blood purity is traced back to his ancestry, inspired as he is by Slytherin’s idea that magic should remain within purely magical families. Voldemort aligns with this ideology, building a grand plan over the years of having the wizards overtake and obliterate the non-magical community. Early signs of this genocidal agenda are seen in the terrorist attacks he stages along with his Death Eaters in the first chapter. Besides the outright acts of violence that such xenophobic ideology leads to, Rowling also highlights the insidious ways these attitudes play out in society: Draco and his mother walk out of Madam Malkin’s, disgusted by the fact that it services Muggle-borns.

As with any ideology, Rowling displays how its proponents remain, by and large, products of their conditioning.