African American Slayer

[DeadlyDuo]

One possibility I’ve dreamt up is a black Faith as the lead dealing with living in golden girl Buffy’s shadow (I’m thinking she stays dead in this timeline so we don’t have to deal with a character of Buffy who acts as a bit of an antagonist, just in terms of Faith’s pressure to live up to that legend.)

They need a Buffy so they can keep using the brand recognisability name of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Oh & people really hated Dawn for some reason but thought she had really shiny hair.

😆

POSTER: Reasons I hate Dawn:

1. She's annoying.
2. She's terrible at eating ice cream.

*Sometime later*

100. Buffy had to sacrifice herself to save her.

Dawn is really terrible but I like her hair, it's so shiny!

 

[Wilder Midnight]

I'd much rather see Anita Blake get a series.

 

[Honoria Dedlock]

Is she gonna be token black or actually speak to a black experience of America? I don’t think diversity-washing characters from a white perspective is the greatest form of representation. I hope they go the new names, new characters route so the show runner can explore the emotional demons that actually speak to a black experience & it’s not just window dressing. One possibility I’ve dreamt up is a black Faith as the lead dealing with living in golden girl Buffy’s shadow (I’m thinking she stays dead in this timeline so we don’t have to deal with a character of Buffy who acts as a bit of an antagonist, just in terms of Faith’s pressure to live up to that legend.)

When I first watched the series, I always wondered why they didn't cast Faith as a black actress...maybe they felt they had been there done that with Kendra, but Faiths particular alienation in Sunnydale felt like it would have fit perfectly with her character arc.

Then again, you could argue she would have just been a racist caricature of a black impoverished criminal.

It's a shame they killed off Kendra so early...bury your blacks along with bury your gays syndrome (Larry, Tara).

The first slayer was African if I recall correctly, and I remember Buffy saying something really racist to her about her hair? Something about it being unprofessional? I think it was in restless?

 

[WillowFromBuffy]

The first slayer was African if I recall correctly, and I remember Buffy saying something really racist to her about her hair? Something about it being unprofessional? I think it was in restless?

Yes, after telling Sineya that she is nothing like her, Buffy asks her to think about what impression her untamed hair makes in the workplace. What makes that joke particularly nasty is that you couldn't make it unless you knew something about the discrimination women of colour face in the workplace and how much money some spend and the pain they endure to make their hair conform to white standards of respectability.

Buffy comes from a fairly conservative white middle class family background. All her friends in Sunnydale and Hemery are white. She has to figure out the world bit by bit. A couple episode later, she will express some thinly veiled homophobia towards Tara and her weird witchy circle of friends.