(Warning: this post contains MAJOR SPOILERS for all aired episodes of The Vampire Diaries.)
Dear Kevin Williamson and Julie Plec,
I love your show. Every week I am constantly bowled over by the attention to detail you put into this program. The plot zips along at a pace that puts the writers of most TV dramas to shame, and I’m constantly kept on my toes by every twist and turn you throw my way. But even though the show is plot-driven, the characters are well-defined and developed, and this season, you’re throwing new and interesting character combinations my way. I loved seeing Matt and Bonnie interact again and it cracks me up that Katherine and Jeremy are now on a road trip together (hey, why not?) I love that you keep raising the stakes in terms of both character and plot and leave us worried about all of them every week. Even though we know that most of the main characters aren’t going to die, we can still worry about the emotional consequences for them.
I especially love what you’re doing with the triangle that is Stefan/Elena/Damon. This new, (more) mature flavor of Damon is the favorite version of him I’ve seen to date, and while I’m still annoyed that Elena doesn’t know the details about Andie, I like what I’ve seen of him so far this season. I love that Evil Stefan is now around to sarcastically torture Elena and Damon for god knows how long. I love, love, love that Elena told Stefan to fight his compulsion because he owed it to her. My girl’s not just some doormat; even in the midst of all her pining, she’ll still stand up for herself. Most of all, I love that the Elena/Damon relationship is progressing slowly and that all three characters involved will likely survive this triangle.
In short, your show rocks. But it does have a flaw, a flaw that is only becoming more glaring with each season.
You really, really need to stop killing all the black people.
Mr. Williamson and Ms. Plec, let me be blunt: you have a very white show. This, in of itself, is not a crime – as much as I would like to see more diversity on TV, I’m not going to pretend that the problem started with you. In some ways, you handle race a little better than most white-dominated shows I watch. Most of the black characters that have appeared on the show have at least been important to the plot and the vampire mythology, if not fully-developed characters in their own right.
Still, I twitch a little every time you introduce a new black character and reveal that the character is a witch – or, alternately, you introduce a character who’s a witch and also happens to be black. On one hand, I appreciate that black people have an important role to play in this rich, complex, supernatural world that you and L.J. Smith have created, and I appreciate that these black characters have authority and power and a variety of motives. On the other hand, I’m side-eyeing you for contributing to the Magical Negro stereotype. I wouldn’t mind a few non-black witch or warlock characters, or a few prominent black vampire or werewolf characters, is all I’m saying.
But even if you insist on making all black characters witches, can you at least stop killing them all?
Right now, Bonnie is the only black character on the show who a) has appeared in more than one episode and b) is still alive. Everyone else is dead or absent. You killed Gina Torres’s character. You killed Grams. Bonnie’s cool cousin who double-crossed Katherine disappeared from the face of the earth. You killed Luka and Jonas last season when they meddled with the wrong people – which I didn’t mind in of itself, since Luka was annoying, and Jonas was interesting until he shoved a broken bottle in Matt’s neck and you do not fuck with Matt so you got to go, but it’s a problematic decision when it fits into the larger pattern of killing the black characters. Then you killed Greta a few episodes later. I didn’t like her, either. I didn’t understand why she was working with Klaus and why she seemed so unconcerned with the fact that her brother and father died trying to find her. That’s also problematic – introducing a black female character who has no discernible motive and killing her off without giving her any real development. It doesn’t matter that she was a powerful witch; magic powers does not a well-developed character make.
This season, you introduced us to Gloria. I was immediately intrigued by her. She was confident and no-nonsense without being stereotypically “sassy.” She was older, composed, and mature. Even Klaus, possibly the most powerful creature alive in the world, seemed to respect her and abide by her rules to a point.
When Gloria started torturing Stefan for information, I found her even more intriguing. She didn’t seem to relish causing him pain, but wasn’t torn up about it, either. She was very matter-of-fact about what she wanted from him. I still didn’t know her ultimate goal, though, and I couldn’t wait to find out – why was she working with Klaus (sort of?) What did she want from him? How far would she go to get what she wanted?
Then Katherine showed up and stabbed Gloria in the neck, and I emitted a “COME ON!” worthy of GOB Bluth.
This is a very big deal for me, you see, because I have never, ever been unhappy to see Katherine. I love Katherine. She’s the baddest bitch in Mystic Falls who gets shit done and is still managing to cause trouble for Klaus, and I really hope she plays a huge role in eventually taking him down. But when she killed Gloria, I was furious.
I understand that you needed to set up a Katherine plot, and I understand that you needed some way to free Stefan from Gloria’s torture. But why did Katherine have to stab Gloria in the neck? Why couldn’t you have Katherine bite Gloria’s neck, drink enough blood, have Gloria sink to the ground to make us all think she was dead, only to show her eyes pop open at the end of the episode? Are you telling me you really didn’t see any further use for this intriguing character?
This character death makes me more upset than all of your previous incidents of Dead Black People Walking. Aside from Grams, none of the other non-Bonnie black people have been super interesting so far. Gloria’s death made me upset not only because I want better representation for people of color on this show, but because she was just plain cool.
Trust me when I say that I love this show. I write this not as an angry critic, but as a devoted fan who wants the show to be even better than it is. Please, please, please improve your portrayal of black characters on this show and extend their shelf lives, because it’s upsetting to watch them serve as cannon fodder for the white characters.
(Also, if you could bring Elijah back ASAP, that would be awesome.)
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I agree, though is it just me that is hugely irritated by the … things Nina Dobrev does with her face swhen she is playing K? I don’t get it… i she trying super-hard to be sexy? What’s happening with her face and the whole… movement… Facial expressions don’t look like that!
At the same time she has completely normal face acting in the mean time.
Just… curious. 🙂
Also, I agree with you… more diversity and more diverse alive charcters.
I heard that Meredisth (a character from the books) is going to come into the show, so my hopes are up. 🙂
Oh, I loooove Nina Dobrev as both Katherine and Elena. Mostly because I have to remind myself that they’re actually played by the same actress.
I haven’t watched the episodes on this new season yet, but can I just add that it pisses me off that the “Founding Families” don’t include people like, you know, Bonnie’s family? I suspect strongly that black families put more work into actually building the city than their white owners, and I hate it when they have big Civil War Celebration events in the city without stopping to have any kind of reflection or comment.
I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I never really thought about the Founders in that context, so thank you for bringing that up.
I suspect strongly that black families put more work into actually building the city than their white owners, and I hate it when they have big Civil War Celebration events in the city without stopping to have any kind of reflection or comment.
I’d wonder if this is intentional on the writers’ part, given that this kind of thing DOES happen all the time in real life (celebrating white history while ignoring the contributions of people of color), but considering the representation of black people on the show so far, I’m not willing to extend the benefit of the doubt in this particular instance. Addressing the racism in the history of Mystic Falls might be beyond the show’s scope, considering there are a gazillion new plot points developing in each episode, so having a few black people on the council – some with the name of Bennett – would be nice.
I can see it as realistic that the Founders Families would be unaware of what they’re doing, but I also think that I’d be happy to see at least one snarky comment from Bonnie or some other black character, pointing it out. It wouldn’t take long, it wouldn’t detract from any major plotlines, and it’d be realistic too in the way that POC are usually more aware of race tropes than the white people who rule the city.
I just think it’s lazy, to say the least, to take the origin story from Renaissance (?) Europe to Civil War South and completely ignore all the new aspects that come out of that. And if the show included POC stories in ways other than Magical Negro and dead black, it could get so much more interesting!
First I actually have hopes for Gloria, I can’t see bringing up her age retardation magic unless it helped retard her death as well, and I can’t see having her bring up how she had her own reasons for wanting the necklace unless we eventually learn what those reasons are.
Interestingly someone on TWoP, a stats person claims that the total number of black characters killed doesn’t outstrip that of white folks, not even proportionally, and that it is not a factually supported “perception”, which is fine and dandy but this is ART and an communication and perception is reality.
I’ve said it before but I think their willingness to populate their side cast/extras with people of color actually makes it seem terrible glaring problem because they necessarily have to be canon fodder. There are just not many secondary characters of either/any race that make it out of Mystic Falls alive.
Of course my biggest issue is the marginlization of Bonnie period. Every year she’s off somewhere else and we get very little storytelling from her pov even though she has such great potential and I think the witchy-race-history thing could be dug into as well, and GOD Kat has chemistry with the entire male cast. I can’t help but think this is absolutely network driven. I’m just way too familiar with racism at that level to not think Williamson/Plec are contending with it. They simply don’t believe black folks like genre and even if they do, there is no reason to cater to their perspective at all. I did just read some encouraging spoilers though hopefully they pan out in way that gives her that POV, and gives us some more characters of color who are not dead.
Regarding Gloria, I got the sense that the exposition surrounding the necklace was more for a setup for the introduction of the Original Witch, but I really hope you’re right.
You make a good point about the side characters/extras. On one hand, it’s nice that they fill Mystic Falls with a lot of non-white extras to show a more diverse town. On the other hand, yeah, the show has such a high body count that it’s inevitable to see the characters of color bite the dust.
But I’m glad you mentioned the issue of network interference. I hadn’t considered the possibility that the network was more at fault than Williamson/Plec (and maybe I should have addressed this open letter to the network executives instead). Good point about Bonnie in general. Hearing that she might actually have a PLOT OF HER OWN is very encouraging.
Yeah in the mid 90’s when The State was trying to transition to late night on CBS, network suits made some unbelievably RACIST statements about the late night audience and while the individual exec was fired, I fail to see how that wasn’t reflective of pervasive beliefs and attitudes at that level, and CBS owns The CW (not that ABC/NBC/Fox don’t engage in the exact same type of thing). Network was made over 30 years ago and the industry has only become even more venal.
Having said that it would be nice to know that Plec/Williamson are *aware* that the magical black trope and the dead black horror trope are in play to negative effect, and would pull back from them some.
Heh I’m actually really worried that after 99 percent of the witches we’ve seen being Black the Original Witch will be white. That will be really really BAD race fail.
I didn’t know that about the networks, though I’m (sadly) not surprised.
I really, really hope the Original Witch isn’t white. I can’t imagine how they would think a white Original Witch would be a good idea. Even if it was all to give Nina Dobrev a third role to play. Please writers, please don’t make the Original Witch and Original Petrova the same person.
First time commenting here! First of all, I love your blog. Second of all, I’m starting my first post by picking a nit. You write:
“Right now, Bonnie is the only black character on the show who a) has appeared in more than one episode and b) is still alive. ”
Unless I’m misreading, your A) is very, very incorrect. Luka and Jonas were in a lot of season two episodes (I know this thoroughly because they bored me terribly. Greta was in three episodes. Gloria in this season alone was in two episodes. Grams was in 3 or 4 (I forget). Emily Benett, despite the handicap of having been dead before the show began, has been in multiple episodes, both in flashbacks and in possessing Bonnie (which means she’s still protecting the town even from beyond the grave). If you count the house with the ghosts of the hundreds of witches (cause c’mon, they’ve gotta all be black) that was in a bunch of episodes too (this is a bit of a joke though). And Harper, the black tomb vampire, was also in at least 3 episodes for sure (I’m thinking five but I don’t remember).
Okay, so that’s my nit picked for the day. One thing that especially annoys me about the treatment of POC on this show is that they all serve vampires. Even the ones that start out independent (i.e. Grams) end up working in the interest of vampires who, more often than not, they despise. It’s also true that most of the witches secretly plot against the vampires (i.e. Gina Torres calling Lexi’s ex-bf to kill Damon, Grams planning to trap Damon in the tomb, Bonnie’s cool-cousin spelling the moonstone to betray Katherine, Bonnie not despelling the Founder’s Day watch device, et cetera et cetera) but all of this plotting is done in secret while serving the orders of the white vamps (higher up witches like Gloria serve requests rather than orders…sigh….). It’s like the only way for a POC to have story-relevant agency is to secretly plot against their white master, which invokes such a troubling slave-time trope that I’m more mad at that than all the killing (and I’m very mad at all the killing). I still have some hope for Bonnie because at least she started out working against vampires, but since she still does whatever they ask….
I find the comment about the founding families really interesting. Not only was Emily Benett an 1865 founder along with the Gilberts, Lockwoods, etc., she was for all intents and purposes a non-attending council member. She didn’t get to go to the meetings (I’m assuming), but she’s the one who made Jonathan Gilbert the vampire compass and the watch to make the supernaturals collapse in pain, and also the one that gave the Gilberts the rings that protect them from all supernatural death. Then, by attempting to stop Damon from opening the tomb by destroying the crystal, she saved the town from vampires once again, making her the longest serving council member by over a century. And she never gets recognition for this.
To your original point, there’s also Anna and Pearl (if we count Asian-Americans in this premise). I found both characters really interesting; they were awesome both when they were working against the show’s protagonists and when they were working with them. They had motivations and plots and power struggles all on their own and separate from the main cast. Just really interesting. And then Anna gets fridged in the finale (the writers actually said out loud that they had her die with the intent of furthering Jeremy’s journey) and Pearl dies almost a worst death, because it was pointless and forgettable (to establish Uncle John as a badass? because that guy sucks).
Anyway, love this blog and love this post. It’s clearly provoked a reaction in me (sorry about the length!).
Unless I’m misreading, your A) is very, very incorrect.
I’m saying that Bonnie is the only black character who has appeared in more than one episode AND is still alive. The other black characters with arcs are all dead.
It’s like the only way for a POC to have story-relevant agency is to secretly plot against their white master, which invokes such a troubling slave-time trope that I’m more mad at that than all the killing (and I’m very mad at all the killing).
Another good point. The characters are all either in opposition to vampires or plotting with them. And I don’t necessarily mind that, because the show is called The Vampire Diaries and vampires are always going to be at the center of the story. But it would be nice to see more vampires who are also people of color.
Then, by attempting to stop Damon from opening the tomb by destroying the crystal, she saved the town from vampires once again, making her the longest serving council member by over a century. And she never gets recognition for this.
Right! Damn. I want more Ghost Emily.
And I’m glad you brought up Anna and Pearl – my post was about black characters in particular, but there’s something to be said about the treatment of Asian-Americans, too. I liked Anna and Pearl (although I did like Uncle Daddy John, too). I guess they had to die because it was all part of Katherine’s plan to get rid of ALL of the tomb vampires, but if we’re getting dead Anna back, then I want dead Pearl back, too.
Never apologize for long comments! I love them. 🙂
Very true. Also, anyone else notice all the slutshaming that Caroline engages in? JFC Caroline, quit calling girls sluts. Never mind that in the same breath one time you did it, you were trying to jump Tyler’s bones, and then SNUCK OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT AND MAYBE MRS. LOCKWOOD WOULDN’T HAVE TRAPPED YOU. Slutshaming and hypocrisy is a winning combination. Not. Not cool. 🙁
It’s unpleasant, that’s for sure, but I also find that behavior unfortunately quite realistic for a teenage girl, especially Caroline, who has a history of being very insecure and uncomfortable in her own skin.
You know how they say a slut is someone having more sex than you? I disagree, especially when it’s women slutshaming other women. They don’t normally want for sex IME. And I don’t think the slur of slut is even about how much sex the target is having. Literally all the term means is “You’re a woman and I want you to feel bad about it ’cause you’re failing to conform to what I believe women ought to conform to.” Or, in the case of a woman calling another woman a slut, maybe, “I feel guilty about my own drives so dammit I’m gonna take you down with me.”
So…I really can’t get behind the sentiment of “That’s right I’m a slut, and I’m proud to enjoy sex.” Because…that’s not what I get from the term.
I see what you’re saying, but…what is that in response to? I’m not defending the use of the term, just saying I find it in character for Caroline to use it.
Whoops, it was a tangent thought. Not directly trying to argue with you. I agree with you. It’s just been on my mind ’cause I’ve seen/heard people say that, is all.
So I know this is an old post and all but… they’re still doing it! Every time i see a black character I know he’s on borrowed time.
I know. It’s so frustrating. Connor was one of the more intriguing “villains” they’ve had in a long time. I get that the show has a high body count in general, but when Bonnie is the only main black character and she’s constantly shoved to the side, the racial politics look worse and worse when they bring in a black person just to immediately off him or her.
The one that got me was the unsired hybrid guy that was basically convenient fodder for Jeremy to kill in the last episode – he was actually helping them but the writers still treated him as if he was worthless and disposable.
It also occurred to me that the few Asian characters that have been on the show don’t fare any better.
Yeah, Anna and Pearl didn’t last long, but at least they were well-defined characters for the time they were on the show, and at least they got their happy ending. They weren’t around just to be killed. You’re right that this unsired hybrid, Chris, was the height of “let’s kill a random black person to help a main character’s development.” Really insulting.
that’s what i said they always killing off the black characters in the same episode or same season can’t they at least have them leave town or something.