‘Magical Negro’ Trope: The use of supporting Black characters, who often possess special perception or mystical powers, who selflessly come to the aid of white protagonists in American cinema.
Today I saw a Twitter post from Julie Plec, co-creator of The Vampire Diaries, randomly telling Black women that they need to save everyone because white women keep taking “Ls” and choose not to do any better.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve perked up over the years during the early scenes of a show or movie when I see a Black actress I recognize enter, only to be disappointed upon realizing that the actress’s role is solely a plot device. The five Black, female characters we will look at today were all sullied by the ‘magical negro’ trope, which led to the characters’ untimely deaths: usually sacrificed as a means of moving the plot forward for the sake of the white characters’ evolution and/or safety. (Please note there may be spoilers if you haven’t yet seen the listed shows or all episodes.)
Vampire Diaries - Bonnie Bennett (Kat Graham)
Fantastic Beasts – Leta Lestrange (Zoe Kravitz)
Sleepy Hollow – Lieutenant Abby Mills (Nicole Beharie)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer – Kendra (Bianca Lawson)
True Blood - Nancy LeGuare aka Miss Jeanette (Aisha Hinds)
Bonnie Bennett, played by Kat Graham, is an actual witch: the most powerful supernatural creature. She is descended from other powerful Black witches. However, Bonnie is given little screen time or character development and usually falls prey to villains attempting to take advantage of her and her magic. She sacrifices herself at the end of season 4 to bring a white character back to life, only to spend the next two seasons as an apparition only that one character can see. Upon seeing Plec’s tweet, numerous fans asked if she had taken the action of apologizing to Kat Graham for sticking her with such a horrid character arc for several years.
Zoe Kravitz’s Leta Lestrange is the powerful, pure-blood witch and infamous apple of Newt Scamander’s eye. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is the first time we meet her, and she is an elegant force of nature with a tragic and twisted past. But more screen time seems to focus on the quiet love triangle between her, Newt, and her new fiancé, Newt’s brother Theseus. The audience is rushed to connect with Leta after a few scenes before helplessly watching as she sacrifices herself to hold off Grindelwald so that Newt, Tina, Jacob, Yusuf, Nagini, and Theseus can escape. It felt less like a personal redemption and more of an opportunity to depict her saving two people (but essentially six) to allow them to go be great.
“Miss Mills”, as her partner 18th century partner often affectionately referred to her, was one of the most influential TV characters of my life. Lieutenant Abby Mills was beautiful, strong, witty, and graceful, while still possessing a badassness rarely seen in a leading, female character, let alone a Black one. The anger I still feel regarding how Lieutenant Abby Mills (and actress Nicole Beharie behind the scenes) was treated is palpable. She and Ichabod Crane were connected through time and were brought together as the two Witnesses who were supposed to defend and save the world. The first season was chock-full of their heroic rescues, detective work, and growing love and respect for one another. However, it was as if someone in the writer’s room resented that growing love because Abby was quickly sidelined and separated from her Witness partner for the majority of season 2 in favor of bringing his bland, once purgatory-ridden, wife into the picture from a recurring to regular role. By the season 3 finale Abbie was sacrificing her soul to Pandora’s box in order to save the world, alone, and I was vowing to never watch an Abby-less season 4.
Buffy the vampire slayer died at the end of season one but was revived by her friend Xander through CPR. However, her temporary death triggered the emergence of new Slayer, Kendra Young. Kendra was sent from Jamaica to Sunnydale to stop an impending apocalypse. Kendra and Buffy initially shared an antagonistic relationship but grew to respect each other’s strengths and differences. While Buffy fought her former lover turned murderous villain Angel, Kendra stayed at the high school to protect wicca Willow while she attempted to magically restore Angel’s soul.
Though Kendra and Buffy were matched in Slayer strength, vampire Drusilla was able to get the upper hand over Kendra, hypnotize her, and cut her throat, leaving Kendra to bleed out on the floor. The (all white) “Scooby Gang” would go on to succeed in saving the world a few episodes later. Kendra’s death triggered the emergence of another slayer, Faith, who became a major character of the show (and Angel) all the way to the series finale, 6 seasons later. Therefore, it was possible to have two concurrent Slayers, but apparently just not in the form of Kendra.
Aisha Hinds absolutely bodies any role she is in. For that reason, I don’t know how you could not utilize her more. Hinds played Nancy LeGuare on season one of True Blood, a minor antagonist and con artist who reinvented herself as the witch doctor, Miss Jeanette. She tricked Tara Thornton and her mother to submit to exorcisms. After her ritual that brought forth great power, Miss Jeanette’s dead body was found in the backseat of a car to essentially introduce the season 2 villain. What was interesting about this scene was that in the novel, the dead body found was that of another male character who, in the show, became so popular that they did not want to kill him off.
Black women must continually navigate through a world full of racism, sexism, misogyny, and maternal mortality daily. To then expect us to be the life savers to those who cowardly avoid confronting the discriminatory system they benefit from is farcical. Black women are not here to save anyone. We seek our own peace, joy, and business to mind.
