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Post by Headmistress Lola Ebonywood on Jun 18, 2016 21:22:57 GMT -5
Wizards in The Great Depression Being a wizard in the United States had always had its drawbacks. Secrecy laws in U.S. have always been some of the heaviest in the world, and this is due to the presence of anti-magic groups that seek to expose the magical community due their beliefs that magic is evil. Because of this, wizards and witches have had to learn to adapt and live as much like non-magical people as possible in order to keep their true nature under wraps. This wasn't always easy. One of the hardest times in history for being a U.S. citizen was during The Great Depression, but it was difficult for wizards for a whole different reason than it was for non-magical people. While the no-maj community suffered due to the poor economy and unemployment, wizards faced difficulties when it came to hiding their magical status. This is because wizards and witches were unaffected financially by The Great Depression due to the fact that they functioned under a separate economy. Now, there were some wizards and witches who had non-magical accounts who suffered loss of assets, but the impact of this loss was nowhere near as devastating as it was for no-maj people because wizards and witches still had magical money that they could fall back on. Aside from this, wizards and witches also had the ability to acquire and stretch goods through magical means if they needed to, and commodities for wizards and witches were still in abundant supply. This made life hard for folks of the magical community because they had to take great measures to make it seem as though they were just as poverty-stricken as their non-magical counterparts, often making great sacrifices in order to do so. Magical families downsized just like non-magical people even though they did not necessarily need to. They took extra care to make sure they looked just as underfed and unkempt as their non-magical neighbors. Mother witches would often rub soot on their children's faces to make them look dirty. This practiced was called "sooting", and the term is still used today, referring to any measure that a magical person takes to appear as a no-maj. However, there were some magical folk who refused to do their share of downsizing and sacrificing in the name of magical secrecy. It did not take long for them to draw unwanted attention and animosity. These wizards and witches would be accused of, well, being wizards and witches and were often blamed for the state of the economy. Eventually, the accused would have to seek refuge in all-wizarding towns. To top all of this off, Prohibition was still in effect for the no-maj population, but not for wizarding folk. Wizards who consumed alcohol had to be extra careful as to not draw attention to themselves or spill secrets during their drunken stents. Thankfully, the longest decade in U.S. history drew to an end, and The United States began to recover from the devastating effects of The Great Depression. Prohibition came to an end as well, and wizards and witches were able to relax a great deal. However, the importance of "sooting" had forever been instilled in the minds and memories of the wizarding population.
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Post by Headmistress Lola Ebonywood on Jun 20, 2016 10:31:02 GMT -5
Wizards in World War 2 World War II was arguably the largest war of The Modern Era, and even though the U.S. had initially planned to evade involvement, the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 changed this. America was now part of the chaos, and no one, wizard or no-maj, was above serving his country. Even though MACUSA wished that the magical world remain uninvolved, wizards were still U.S. citizens who felt the need to defend their country. Many wizards falsified information in order to enlist. On the battlefields, wizards learned how to handle firearms and survive without the use of magic, but it was not uncommon for a wizard to secretly use magic to aid his platoon in their survival. Such acts had to be done as covertly as possible as to not raise suspicions. One tactic was for wizards to take to the air under the guise of strange objects or balls of light. They would then protect ally aircraft, often flying nearby, ready to offer magical help when it was needed. No-maj soldiers mistook the helpful wizards for advanced enemy craft, calling them “Foo Fighters”. In later years, people would come to speculate that Foo Fighters where extraterrestrial space craft, and wizards had no choice but accept this and once again go unrecognized for their efforts in order to maintain secrecy. Many wizards also went unrecognized by MACUSA for their valour. Their efforts still did not affect Rappaport's Law.
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Post by Headmistress Lola Ebonywood on Jun 22, 2016 21:45:19 GMT -5
The Turning Point, the 1960's The 1960's was a time of great change in the magical community. As the idea of "peace and free love" gripped young people of the era, and the hippie culture movement came about, no-maj people had a new found fascination with all things unearthly and mystical. Wizards and witches were able to find loopholes in secrecy laws as they engaged a bit more freely with non-magical folk than they were supposed to. These interactions were overlooked because, to be frank, no-maj people were often too high to remember anything. Plus, it was easy for a witch or wizard to slip a no-maj a potion that would erase or alter their memory. People of that era were willing to try anything that they believed would get them stoned and "help them reach a higher frequency". Because of these interactions, witches and wizards grew more comfortable in the company of no-maj folks. It was not uncommon for wizards and witches to take no-maj lovers despite the laws that forbid this. Assimilating was much easier for magical people because people were more open and accepting to untoward concepts. More and more magical people were beginning to question the fairness of Rappaport's Law. Then, the Civil Rights Movement started to sweep the nation. Wizards and witches began to make a stand against their segregation from the no-maj population. Groups of witches and wizards came together to rally and protest. They were often joined by no-maj people who did not necessarily understand the plight of the eccentric friends, but protested nonetheless. MACUSA began to become quite nervous. The fuss created by the masses was beginning to draw attention that could have potentially caused big problems for the magical community. In order to satiate the wizard community, MACUSA members approached the non-magical congress in order to establish a connection with the no-maj government. The two governing parties were able to find common ground and find a way to work together. Rappaport' s Law was finally repealed.
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Post by Headmistress Lola Ebonywood on Jun 23, 2016 9:41:05 GMT -5
Wizardry in Technological Advances The years that proceeded the Amendment of Rappaport's Law went on relatively uneventfully. Of course, wizards participated in the various wars of the time, but they still practiced discretion when it came to disclosing information on their magical statuses, only sharing this information when necessary. If a wizard joined a platoon, the non-magical soldiers within the platoon were automatically entered into non-disclosure agreements, but many of them did not mind the compulsory compliance because there were, of course, benefits to having a wizard in one's platoon. Other wizards secretly worked hand in hand with the non-magical U.S. government, finding ways to use magic in weaponry. Through the use of misinformation, the government was able to keep the civilian population blind to the truth about the strange things they were seeing in the skies. Even today, no-maj people are still under the notion that Area 51 is a secret base for alien experiments. In truth, it is a base used to development magical/mechanical hybrid weaponry. The magical population has a better idea of what is really going on. The increase in technology that has occurred within the last 20 years is a byproduct of these interactions.
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Post by Headmistress Lola Ebonywood on Jun 23, 2016 10:23:08 GMT -5
The Harry Era In the 1980’s and 90’s, Harry Potter wasn't just a household name in European wizards’ homes. Americans were fully aware of who The Boy Who Lived was as well. They were also quite aware of who Lord Voldemort was, but the name of The Dark Lord didn't carry as much weight in the U.S. as it did in other parts of the world. American wizards had little to do with foreign affairs, and the “Pureblood Movement” lacked a certain appeal among the predominately no-maj born Wizarding population of the U.S. The threat imposed by supporters of The Dark Lord also had much less weight in the U.S. because, unlike wizards in other parts of the world, magitech weaponry had began showing up within the civilian population. Wizards in the U.S. had the firepower to thwart their opposition effortlessly. There were some who tried to spread the ideals of “Pureblood Superiority” in The States, but they were met with much disdain and disregard. American wizards had fought too hard in the 1960’s to gain the right to interact with whoever they pleased that the idea of throwing that right away on the whim of some crazed dark wizard just seemed silly.
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