An Actual Fantastic Discussion on Race and The Vampire Diaries...

[ladygawain]

If you know me at all, you'll know that this is a subject that rests very close to my heart and weighs upon it every single time there is an episode of this show. This article is really great and I have so many complicated feelings on the matter and I thought I'd share it here if anyone's interested. There are some points I find problematic and

Comments

[audrey229]

The discussion with Gone With the Wind is a perfect example of the idea that we have to look at a text and be AWARE and conscious of both the racist and sexist practices that were taking place on our culture during that time

[ladygawain]

I think that's what is so troubling with the show's CONSTANT, and I mean constant references to GWTW. I mean, I have a complicated relationship with that film. My brothers (one of whom passed recently as you know) and I used to watch it together every single Christmas when I was a child and even though we were not really educated on racism in the US, we knew it to be problematic but we still really loved it? However, with adulthood, and knowledge, it's become kind of intolerable to me on too many levels.

This is all to say that I get it. I get the nostalgic appeal for some, I understand the romance of it but the fact that they continually hark back to that film and that time period with no critical eye towards the very problematic racism and slavery, ESPECIALLY when they're re-creating their own own analogue to that period through the vampire-witch dynamic is reprehensible and irresponsible.

The best thing this show could do would be to TALK ABOUT IT and acknowledge it and really make the narrative clear that they KNOW that racism

[words_by_ash]

I'm glad to see open discussions about this shows struggle with "real" history. I would also like to point out the inherent hierarchy of "super beings". We have a majority of white vampires being served by witches (the majority of whom are black) and it reads almost as if this is the slavery that never quite went away.

Then we have Bonnie who's only purpose on this show (it seems) is to "serve" Elena, the Salvatores or Caroline. We never need her unless it's to support another characters narrative. She is perpetuating the exact cycle that has killed many of her kind.

I wish that we had someone who was brave enough to want to address these issues in the writing of the show. It may be on the CW but that doesn't mean it can't be better than it.

Also as a side note, you cannot be a descendant of slaves and not feel uncomfortable watching GWTW. It can't be done.

[ladygawain]

Exactly this. The show has quite deliberately (unless all the writers are either racist or tone-deaf or both) created an analogue to slavery with the witches and vampires. Even though they've had two ostensibly non-POC witches, the vast majority of the witches on the show exist in unequal and oppressive relationships with vampires.

When Bonnie comments on it and says "things never end well for people like me", it's one of the few times that she's allowed to comment on her own situation, on the fate of her kind at the hands of vampires - the writers know what they're doing to that extent.

But they fail at the crucial moment by not giving it any narrative importance beyond those few moments of reflection and keeping the witches in servitude until they're inevitably killed by an angry vampire for "falling out of line".

Then we have Bonnie who's only purpose on this show (it seems) is to "serve" Elena, the Salvatores or Caroline. We never need her unless it's to support another characters narrative. She is perpetuating the exact cycle

[words_by_ash]

As obvious as the hierarchy between black witches and white vampires has been on this show, I was quite surprised at what they did with the indigenous populations/Klaus' family in Ordinary People. How they explicitely portrayed the need for and the way the first family achieved "superiority" over the werewolves. The wording in that episode was disgusting. The fact that the first witch was white was disgusting. It is probably one of the most offensive episodes on this show for me because instead of ignoring the negative and hurtful parts of the past they embraced this almost Nazi-esque vision where the vampires climbed to the top of the hierarchy through the simple belief that they deserved it for no freaking reason other than they were somehow better than the natural beings (witches and werewolves

[angryzen]

The fact that the first witch was white was disgusting.

Esther was not the first witch. I cling to the fact that Ayanna was there as proof that Esther was not the first witch. Neither was Ayanna. Esther is just the witch who created the first vampires, thus Original witch (although that explanation was extra clunky. Even Clair Holt's delivery of it).

[angryzen]

Yay, you posted it here. That means I don't have to keep spamming the post on tumblr (not enough people are reblogging). I wanted to address these:

Bonnie is given no one and her strength is taken for granted. She asks for help when she needs it but leans on no shoulders and looks after herself. Why is it assumed that in a cast of characters including ancient and immortal beings, the lone black character can go it alone?

Klaus. Klaus' whole thing is that he doesn't want to be alone. He wants his family. Family is important. His goal/dream is to unite his family. He promises Elijah his family will be whole again. This guy is the biggest villain the show has had, and the producers chose to "ground" him through this trope, through their favorite trope. And then there's Bonnie. It took 3 seasons to give her a mother, and we can only pray the story will play out coherently and well. And that's only number 1. Because there's still number 2 which is her dead family that is actually still around in the witch house. They've covered all of

[ladygawain]

LOL, I was just off to reply to your tumblr reblog because I can't have discussion on Tumblr at all - it's just not discussion-friendly

[angryzen]

I mean, there's an extent to which Bonnie's isolation works into my understanding of her as a character.

It does, but most of the time it feels like she's isolated even from the freaking writers.

Yeah, the book Bonnie thing boggled my mind. The girl is a simpleton. She was even more subservient to Elena than show Bonnie. I had to leave a comment when someone said the show screwed so much that Bonnie was even willing to die for Elena. She wasn't. They also wondered who Bonnie lives with since she visits her dad and his family in the summer. It's not her dad that she visits. Stuff like that. And I c/p most of what I wrote on tumblr onto the comment.

Yes, I need to hear the witches, Bonnie and Abby, non-Bennett witches explicitly state what it means to them. Because it's obvious that what it means to Bonnie is NOT what it meant to Gloria and Greta.

[ladygawain]

REPLYING TO YOUR TUMBLR POST, ALTA

I loved the Carol moment. And I’m mentioning it in order to say, no one Black has said the word slavery. Carol alluded to it, and Elijah said it. But the other half of that legacy? The ones who weren’t the owners but the owned? They haven’t said it I feel like it helps in ensuring Fandom’s lack of empathy/sympathy for Bonnie. Two White people mentioned slavery. They might as well have said the sky is blue. Wtf did Stefan call Emily? A handmaiden. So you get people saying Emily and Katherine were best friends, and Emily betrayed Katherine and it’s part of witches being untrustworthy (I’m not joking. I got into a discussion with someone over this). Two White characters mentioning slavery, a table of white people talking about how Blacks found MF while one laughs and cracks a joke about it (Jenna) and another says it sounds like a ghost story (Alaric) serves in watering it down. And Damon or Stefan read that Emily was burned at the very spot where her ancestors were killed, and the most important part

[ladygawain]

These are all things I, and many people, have talked about (with Mags most of the time). The producers glorify the White part of the South, of the Confederacy. They have the White gaze glued on, so we have Bonnie watching GWTW and standing right there while Caroline complains about Matt not dressing period appropriate right before happily saying she wants a picture with Bonnie.I mean, remember that time Caroline made that gross comment about "Indian-givers" and Bonnie gave her a look and she quickly apologized. Like, man, I would take even THAT over the non-reaction she has to every founding family bonanza. I know that by now the poor girl has probably been bludgeoned to death with it, the town will never get over its racist roots and there's no getting away from it. But for her to just be peacably watching GWTW was almost too ludicrous to bear. Not to mention her consistent exclusion from these events by virtue of her skin color and supposed non-heritage and no one talks about it. We're just supposed to look at these reenactments and

[angryzen]

I know that by now the poor girl has probably been bludgeoned to death with it

She learns it in school!!! Remember when Alaric was like, "Let's take a break from learning about Founding Family history?" I bet Tikki skips those school days.

[angryzen]

Why is she not granted opportunities to reflect and critique this shithole town and its obsession with glorifying an institution that oppressed and enslaved her own ancestors.

What's worse is that the show has twice taken the time (through Katherine, Anna, hell the tomb vamps in season 1 so I guess three times. Remember Frederick's grudge?) to explicitly acknowledge the town's wrongs against vampires. How they got rich off the land of vampires. But they won't comment how they not only got rich on the backs of Bonnie's ancestors and other Black people who weren't witches, and they won't comment on how the Founders stole Bonnie's family's property and are claiming it as their own. Anna and Pearl have commented on their stolen property. Bonnie/Sheila/(Abby?)/Emily have not

[ever_neutral]

Ah, thanks for linking this. I don't have anything to intelligent to add (though I have some disagreements), but glad to see it.

[ladygawain]

Welcome, bb.

Yep, there are several points on which I just don't agree with their assessment of Bonnie or Elena and several other factors.