Is The Vampire Diaries Racist?

Now, don’t get me wrong. I just like you have binged The Vampire Diaries incessantly since it was released on Netflix. And for the most part, I believe The Vampire Diaries is a mostly harmless show to watch. It follows the vampire trope where a mortal girl falls in love with a vampire. Well, in Elena’s case �" vampires! However, after watching the two-hour video titled, THE Vampire Diaries uploaded on YouTube by Jenny Nicholson, I began to form other opinions. The YouTube video is a complete and justified run down of the entire show including plot holes, character flaws and the overt racism that is subject to the show. In the times I have watched the Vampire Diaries and swooned over the love of Elena and Stefan, and Elena and Damon, again and again. I had never picked up on the heavy racism underlying the entirety of the show. I am the first to admit this is because I was blinded by my white privilege, but as any good academic I must atone for those biases I hold. This isn’t a piece that excuses my blindness, but it must be pointed out that the show writes in racism as a sort of normality whereby 13-year-old me was non-the-wiser to the huge political problem underlying this tv show. 

 

In the first episode of The Vampire Diaries, we are introduced to the character, Bonnie Bennet. A very strong black female lead, who is from a family that originated in Salem. We see her grow and mature as a character as she taps into her magic and becomes one of the most powerful witches in the lore. However, even Bonnie is written to essentially turn a blind eye to the racism in the show. In the last episode of season one, Founder’s Day, the town of Mystic Falls hosts a parade to honour the Civil War. Which is problematic in itself, but also, we see a close zoom in on Bonnie who is in the crowd, waving and smiling at her friends who are dressed as Confederate soldiers. Although, a character who seems openly proud of her heritage, Bonnie is written as almost compliant and submissive to the racism in the town of Mystic Falls. Never once does she vocally stand up for her black heritage or start a conversation about her ancestors who we know were slaves. Flashbacks to 1864 are included in the show, on numerous occasions, one of which we see Emily Bennet as Katherine Pierce’s handmaiden. Yet, this relationship between Katherine and Emily is often passed off as a friendship, completely ignoring the fact that Emily was Katherine’s slave. 

 

Furthermore, the character of Bonnie is superficially written. She is often passed off as a solution to the show’s supernatural problems rather than a character with her own integrity. The writers neglect to set scenes in her house and not because she is homeless either. We first see her house in season three episode 20, Do Not Go Gentle. When Jamie, a boy she is briefly interested in, drops her home after the 1920s themed school dance. Other characters in the show, we see their house from the very beginning of the show. In addition, some episodes are entirely set in Elena Gilbert’s household. Not only is she neglected a house, but Bonnie is clearly a second thought when it comes to the love department. Characters such as Elena and Caroline have many long and meaningful relationships during the show’s duration, so much so Caroline even gets married and has children towards the end of the show. Bonnie, on the other hand, has three main loves in the show, all of whom are killed off. Which is not to say she doesn’t have other encounters with men, however, all of whom are using her for her magic. 

 

Not only are Bonnie’s love interests killed off, but Bonnie is killed many times throughout the show. In season four she is killed as she uses all her magic to resurrect Jeremy, Elena’s younger brother and one of Bonnie’s main three love interests. She is then brought back to life and becomes the anchor to The Other Side, only for her to die and get trapped in a prison world alongside Damon. Bonnie also experiences a lot of near-death experience during the show, like when she is stabbed by Kai in Portland and left to bleed out. Not to mention, at the end of the sixth season Bonnie’s life is magically tied to Elena’s life. The curse performed by the season six villain, Kai, means that Bonnie’s death is inevitable as the only way for Elena to awake from her slumber is for Bonnie’s life to be over. This is resolved in the last episode of the show, and Bonnie and Elena get to continue their lives together. However, it just shows how irrelevant the writer’s thought Bonnie’s life was, with this impending death looming over her character. The actress who plays Bonnie, Kat Graham, said in an interview that “that’s just how it goes”, in reference to the deaths of her character. Ian Somerhalder who plays Damon Salvatore, backed Kat up saying that if she was not written back in the show after her many deaths, he would leave the show with her. This ultimately gave the writers a choice: either to lose their main male lead or keep Kat Graham as Bonnie Bennet. Which is where we see her being resurrected from death and near-death countless times. 

 

The racism displayed in the show isn’t just in regard to Bonnie’s character. It is also is heavily depicted in the overall setting of the show. The Vampires Diaries is set in the fictional town of Mystic Falls in Virginia, where there is a history of slavery. Although, the writers might have assumed this provided a context or standpoint for them to include it in their show. The constant glorification of the Civil War, Confederate soldiers, and European Founders of the town in a show that is set in 2009 to 2018 seems quite absurd. With the show revolving around such a modern time period, almost 145 years after the Civil War, it seems ridiculous that the town would imbed these antiquated principles into its core. One of the most reoccurring glorifications of the Civil War comes from Stefan when he often mentions how proud he is of his brother for fighting in the Civil War as a Confederate soldier. He even says that this is the peak of Damon’s morality and humanity choosing to fight to uphold the institution of slavery in the Southern states. 

 

The show revolves around the axis of the founding families who we can deduce are racist white settlers that mistreated their slaves. Many of the main characters are ancestors to the founding families, Elena and Jeremy Gilbert from the Gilbert Family, Caroline Forbes from the Forbes Family, and Stefan and Damon Salvatore from the Salvatore Family. Bonnie Bennet is one of the only main characters whose family is not part of the founding families. Her heritage and her race are the reasons for her exclusion. Tyler Lockwood, a character who has a lot of screen time in the earlier seasons before he leaves to join the spin-off series The Originals, is son the Mayor Lockwood. And as descendants from another founding family, they live on the same block of land as their ancestors. Of which still has remanence of a slave plantation at the back of their land. We see this when Tyle begins to transition into a werewolf and locks himself in the ‘slave quarters’ which is depicted as a demented cave with chains, shackles and cages in it. 

 

The town of Mystic Falls isn’t shy to celebrate the founding families either. They often hold Founders Day celebration, the Founders’ Day parade, and host the Founding Court. Along with so many other ties back to the founding families, it is confusing that the show would continue to normalise this overt racism. Almost as though, the writers are claiming that slavery and the Civil War were good things to happen in history. Sometimes these town events happen in episodes that are back-to-back, one of which sticks out to me especially. During the Founders’ Day parade (which I briefly touched on above), float after float pass by the crowd of Mystic Falls filled to the brim with racial prejudice. One float in particularly is a group of history students that re-enact the Battle of Willow Creek which is a fictionalised version of what can be assumed the Battle of Wilson Creek, where 1,200 Union soldiers and 1,100 Confederate soldiers were killed. The float and the students who are dressed in Confederate soldier uniforms are depicted to have fake blood on them and in my opinion I believe this to be extremely insensitive.

 

The Vampires Diaries is unarguably a fun, young-adult tv show about vampires and teenage romance. However, it would be ignorant to think it isn’t problematic in the way it transgresses historical racism into its modern setting. Although, all the things I have listed above are not explicit forms of racism. It arguably is much worse… The writers are subconsciously normalising and glorifying a form of deep-rooted racism the Southern states once had. I don’t know if this was intentional on the behalf on the writers, however it is definitely something that we can reflect on now. Choices to advocate for the Confederate army and constantly redirect the plot back to the Founding Families, along with the silence and submission of Bonnie Bennet’s black character and her heritage, all seems wildly out of context and completely inappropriate for the time this tv show was set. I know I will never watch The Vampire Diaries again with the same blindness and complacency I once had. 

Author's Note

Disclaimer: this piece has spoilers to the show, The Vampire Diaries.

Reviews

[mattavelli]

Hello! :)
I enjoyed this read. I watched the series with my wife. It was silly, but some of the plotlines were compelling. I dont think much of what you mentioned is racist.

[Cinematic N0stalgia]

Thank you for the review. I can understand that you believe that racist may be a strong word to use when discussing The Vampires Diaries. But I do believe their implicit meaning behind all these inclusions in their show, is very off. Definitely not in light of racial equality.

[mattavelli]

Bonnie was the only character with integrity, the tragic hero of the series. We have a racist history, and the show needed and used that history to give depth to its setting and characters. I didnt see glorification of slavery or whiteness. The show did have a lot of drug use, teen sexuality, and violence, but so does the real world. The USA also has a lot of white people. I'd say anything that is marketed toward them, as a group, is discriminatory. I'd say this show was marketed toward white teenage girls. So, its racist, ageist, and sexist. Haha

[Cinematic N0stalgia]

I see where you are coming from and loving this open discussion on the topic. But I think a better way for them to show the back story's of characters, including horrific details such as slavery, the Confederate army and so on, could have been down in just the flashbacks in the show. Instead of bringing it into the modern setting of the show, for instance all the Founder's Day celebrations and so forth. But yeah, it's a weird complex to think of such a young adult, teenage girl show being so nonchalant with racial prejudice.