Looking Back On Kat Graham's Racist and Anti-Semitic Experience on 'The Vampire Diaries'

Photo courtesy of Guy D’Alema / The CW

Coming of age stories have graced our screens nearly forever, now. The genre, especially stories with a twist of supernatural themes, dates back to the 1980s, when our teenage boyfriends, girlfriends, and/or best friends were secretly vampires and werewolves. But the 2010s would take a different approach. In 2009, The Vampire Diaries (TVD) on The CW was about a pair of centuries-old vampires that enter the lives of a group of teenagers. Their lives would change forever — literally. It introduced audiences to brothers Damon and Stefan Salvatore, the aforementioned vampires, Elena and Jeremy Gilbert, Bonnie Bennett, Caroline Forbes, and Alaric Saltzman.

I don’t want to waste time breaking down each character and their purpose. Instead, I want to talk about the character Bonnie Bennett and actor Kat Graham, who plays her. In the show, Graham claimed the role of a young woman whose ancestry is linked with witches. With her arrival in TVD, Graham became a beloved household name in the communities and fanbases of supernatural television shows. As both an actor and biracial woman, her ability to be visible and work with a network that garnered the attention of millions of people was a huge step forward. At the same time, however, Graham had to face numerous instances of racism and anti-semitism.

More Than Bitchy Witchy Way 

Bonnie Bennett is ambitious, caring, and thoughtful. These traits reside in her actions, as she doesn’t obtain any character development throughout the show. Bonnie was the ‘Mr. Clean’ of her inner circle; she cleans up her friend’s messes — something which should not have been laid on her in the first place — and was mainly there for emotional and physical support, not receiving much support in return. This is best seen in the moments after Bonnie resurrects Jeremy. As a ghost, she saw her friends exploring college without her.

When Graham suggested, in a Comic Con interview, what kind of new twists and turns Bonnie should experience, especially letting Bonnie explore sexually and potentially end up with female witches the producers shied away from the idea or simply ignored it. When a fan questioned the writer and director of TVD, Julie Plec, about her motive behind giving Bonnie a love interest, she responds, “Dear certain Bonnie fans, you prefer beautiful, strong Bonnie to be with a murderous vampire-like Kai.”

In season six, Bonnie and Damon found themselves stuck on ‘the other side,’ thinking they were alone. Another young witch named Kai is introduced. Much like Bonnie, he comes from a family of witches, the same people who trapped him on the other side. Kai navigates them and illustrates the idea of getting them out. Damon manages a sweet escape, only to leave Bonnie behind with Kai, who ends up mistreating her and using her powers to take himself home. After Kai successfully leaves, Bonnie is left alone, spending Christmas alone as well. Eventually, Bonnie regains enough power to send herself home, too. At any given chance, a relationship could work out. But Bonnie experiences betrayal so often, and from her closest friends and family at that.

It’s unsettling when a producer you work with antagonizes and questions a fan’s ideas, but it’s even more unpleasant when a co-star disrespects you with remarks on how you were raised. Graham’s co-star Matthew Davis, who plays Alaric Saltzman, sounded off on Twitter. “Are Jewish people upset about Bonnie’s treatment too?” he says. Davis disregards Graham’s mistreatment as a woman of color, averting the issue by mentioning her Judaism. An Oh No They Didn’t post expands on this further:

He shows a complete lack of understanding that the dismissal of Bonnie’s character likely doesn’t spring from her white Jewish background, and that ignoring that is just putting on blinders to the realities of the Black Best Friend and Magical Negro tropes.

Davis made the relation to Graham’s religion in real life, and to any fans of the fandom who are Jewish. He belittles Graham’s character, her experiences and religion, and in turn, all who are Jewish, who watch and make TVD what it is. Since then, Davis has displayed his ignorance multiple times online, upsetting directors and cast members he’s worked with through his support of Donald Trump and xenophobic remarks against Chinese people.

Sometimes enough is enough, and you have got to hold your ground. But it’s best to do it when you have a support system around. After playing her character for over 13 years, Graham was slated to leave in the middle of the last season. There were reports, allegedly, that Graham was fired. Ian Somerhalder, who played Damon, did not tolerate that. Somerhalder said he would leave the show if Graham ever did. While this was a nice gesture from her co-star, he should not have to swoop in to save her. It’s the people behind the show who should be held accountable.

There are multiple video clips of Graham crying when she meets fans who support her at meet and greets. This is proof of how much Graham, both on and off-screen, struggles with the discrimination she receives on a regular basis, and how much she takes in silence. She was neither appreciated as Bonnie Bennett nor taken seriously as an actor. No matter how poor the script she’s given, Graham continued to do her best throughout the show’s production. At the end of the day, however, Bonnie never had happy moments — not a happy ending, not even a split second of joy, unlike her white counterparts.

Let It Begin (Super)Naturally

As the entertainment industry moves forward, important efforts are being made in improving representation and diversity. What the industry should understand is that possibilities are endless with actors of color, especially Black actors. They don’t always have to be cast in stereotypical roles. Introduce new roles to them and give them new opportunities to grace our screens.

Watching characters of color act in supernatural roles and playing otherworldly beings is great, but writers and directors need to make sure that their characters are developing independently, or at the same pace, as their white counterparts. In an interview with Seventeen Magazine, Graham talks about her experiences on TVD, and what it meant to her as an actor. “I will say that I was fortunate in a lot of ways because if I ever felt anything,” she said. “At the time, Mark Pedowitz, who is still the president of The CW, who's also Jewish, he was a really great ear for me."

“There are a lot of great people in different studios that really do make themselves available to have conversations where there are things missing and there needs to be a shift of awareness,” she said. “I will focus on the positive and people who really had my back and helped me understand what I needed to do and how I could support them in elevating the narrative of being young, Black, female in Hollywood."

It’s important to not only include Black actors but Black workers behind the scenes: Black people in planning, production, casting — even hair and makeup. In a 2020 Vogue Beauty Secrets video, Graham shared her natural hair beauty routine. Graham talks about her natural hair journey as an actress, and in life. “When I was auditioning, my hair would always be done that way, straightened or permed, or something like that," Graham told Distractify that same year. "My character for my breakout role as Bonnie [on TVD], always had pretty much straight, wavy hair.”

When TVD was still in production, Graham recommended wearing her natural hair as Bonnie, who has been portrayed with wigs throughout. She had the idea of Bonnie having more curls or texture. "I was shot down pretty quickly," she recalls.

Graham continued conforming to Hollywood’s beauty standard in order to keep working. “I would keep my hair in cornrows and just, you know, throw on a wig because most of the jobs that I had done as an actress, they wanted a certain kind of look,” she said to Vogue. “The African afro texture is not something that Hollywood has ever necessarily embraced. So I hope that I, one day, can play a character that I actually look like.” She mentions her hairstylist, Rachel Lee, who was the person to “put [her] on this journey of using [her] own hair.”

As Graham proudly shows off her curly ‘fro, I’ve realized how much of 4C, B and A type hair isn’t regularly featured on TV, cutting the chances of visibility for actors with those hair types in half. “I just love [...] having a ‘fro,” Graham says. Obviously, I had to cry — growing up, I've been made fun of for my braids, having it be compared to Medusa. This caused me to like braids less, opting for less Medusa-esque styles like wigs, weaves and having my natural hair straightened. I’m on my own natural hair journey, just like Graham.

Looking back, Kat Graham’s work on TVD will always be appreciated by the series’ fans, and the discourse surrounding her character’s treatment — and her as an actor — are still relevant to this day. However, it doesn’t stop there; Graham’s character, Bonnie Bennett, has since influenced many supernatural, teen shows that have come out like the Black witches of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Rosalind Walker and Prudence Night. It’s important to show what kind of independence and recognition Black actors can earn and have. Hopefully, Graham sharing her story as a Jewish, Black woman in the entertainment industry and being able to view the poor production choices TVD made in retrospect will help new and old industry folks recognize the disappointments and mistreatment Black actors face constantly, so that we can finally break this ungracious cycle. ◆

Other sources

This article previously referred to the character Kai Parker as “Kol.” On Oct. 2, 2022, it was updated to “Kai.” Thank you to the commenters for the fact-checking assist!

culture, film, social justiceSunstroke MagazineessayComment