Artist trolled for drawing 'black' Hermione of Harry Potter

A Toronto-based illustrator became the butt of internet trolls when she depicted the character of Harry Potter and Hermione Granger as black. 

On Tuesday, Anoosha Syed, the woman illustrator took to Twitter to show how massively she was trolled by those who thought that it was wrong to show the characters as black when they were actually white in both the books and the movies. 

Anoosha is a practicing illustrator who shared her design on Tumblr page last month. 

Critics of her artwork accused Anoosha of "black tarring" the character and calling her a "fucking dumbass liberal". 

The illustrator, however, gave it back to the detractors with a post that reads: 

“Hermione and Harry’s race is never stated in the books,” and added, “I'll draw whatever I want, thanks.”

She also wrote on Twitter that she expected “one or two people” to oppose her interpretation, but “seeing those comments was a nasty shock.”

She added: “It was horrifying to see how racist people could be. There were also some comments that were trying to be polite, telling me Hermione couldn’t be black because of the book covers, or Emma Watson, or any other detail they pulled from the books but their point is the same; if a character’s race is not stated they are by default white.”

After she tweeted the original Tumblr post, she received praise from a lot of Twitter users who not only appreciated her work but also encouraged her to continue with her passion: