So JK Rowling "loves black Hermione." The tweet came soon after it was announced that the black actress Noma Dumezweni was being cast in the role of Hermione Granger in a London production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, which takes the story of the series forward.

But while Rowling has endorsed "black Hermione", fans on social media also called out Rowling's racial stereotypes.

Cho Chang, a supposedly Chinese character in the book and Harry Potter's early love interest, was the main reason Rowling was accused of fetishising and marginalising people of colour. In 2013 a slam poet Rachel Rostad brought attention to the portrayal of minorities in the Potter series.

Cho and Chang are both Korean last names, Rostad said, adding that finding a Chinese girl named Cho Chang would be like finding “a Frenchman named García Sánchez.” She also points at the veiled homosexuality of Dumbledore, saying, "Hasn't society come so far, now gays don't just have to be closeted in real life, they can even be closeted fictionally."

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The choice of actress has left some people bemused. Rowling dismissed their questions by saying that Hermione's skin colour had never in fact been specified.

The choice of actor Emma Watson, who plays Hermione in the films, may have coloured the popular perception into thinking of the character as white too. Then there's the matter of stereotyped assumptions too.

To be honest, Hermione's physical description only talks of her frizzy hair and teeth, and sometimes even describes her as brown. Sample:

"They were there, both of them, sitting outside Florean Fortescue’s Ice Cream Parlour – Ron looking incredibly freckly, Hermione very brown, both waving frantically at him."

~ The Prisoner of Azkaban

However, some people did claim argument was flawed, citing a part of the book where Hermione was described as white-faced.