You said it so well! Fandom only hypes the Hale family because, well, they're white. So much fic has them as this ~perfect~ rich white family and makes me go "*This* is what y'all insisted would be more interesting?" Not to mention Deaton basically being their slave whom they can mistreat, on top of how the family can walk all over anybody they want. The whole being entitled to power and prestige and Peter can be underhanded but anybody else is a greedy power hungry usurper
Oh, my, no. It’s not about the perfect rich white family being more interesting. It’s about the perfect rich white family being firmly within the fandom’s comfort zone. The good-looking, rich, well-educated, urbane, witty upper-class white people -- the ones who established the town and commanded prestige from both the human and the werewolf communities -- must be afforded the power and privilege that is their right. If a character -- especially one that is not white -- does not act accordingly or if they should, Heaven forbid!, oppose this family, then they must face the consequences of their actions.
Let me share with you two stories I encountered -- one labeled correctly and one not -- which demonstrate without a doubt the racism and white supremacy vulgarly pervasive in the Teen Wolf fandom. I will describe the stories, but I won’t link to them. (I will provide links upon request in private communication.)
The first one I stumbled upon as I was doing some digging to examine how the fandom works. I wanted to analyze how Scott’s role as alpha is treated. I looked at English-only stories with the tag “Alpha Scott McCall” and sorted by Dated Updated Descending (on July 15). To no one’s surprise, nineteen out of the first 40 stories are tagged “Bad Alpha Scott McCall.” A quick review of the summaries and some nausea later, it turns out that apparently a third of the time Scott is a bad alpha because he doesn’t execute people, a third of the time Scott is a bad friend because he holds Allison’s death against Stiles, and the remaining third are for various reasons -- from the fanon concept that he doesn’t train his betas to a claim that he went to college in order to chase girls.
This story, which was at the very top of the list, has Stiles and Peter plotting to remove Scott as alpha of the territory (there’s that territory thing again) because when he found a rogue alpha driven mad by the death of his betas, Scott tried to help him. Of course, Stiles and Peter did the mature thing and murdered the alpha behind Scott’s back, putting him ‘out of his misery.’ Scott got angry and ‘stamped his feet,’ as Stiles insultingly described, because Scott doesn’t actually appear. (His point of view is irrelevant anyway). Peter and Stiles come to the mutual decision that it’s time Scott left, and they’re going to use Peter’s wealth and connections to create an offer of animal clinic in Oklahoma where there are no werewolf territories, so they can protect Beacon Hills the right way.
By the way, if you failed to notice the subtle racism and white privilege in this, the story does go on to mention Alan Deaton. Part of lure to move Scott to Oklahoma would be by mentioning Deaton’s been seen there, which is false, because they’ve murdered Deaton and buried him next to the Nemeton. Why? No reason is given. But that’s the point -- they don’t need to have a reason to kill a black man. Many Steter shippers don’t even need to be told why Deaton deserves to die at this point. It’s a fanon principle.
I also want to point out that nowhere in this story is it presented as horrific. There is not a single line which indicates that what Peter and Stiles are doing is a bad thing. It’s just fixing the world so white people and the way white people think are on top.
The second story gives the example at how eventually, if racism isn’t confronted, it becomes so much part of the norm that you don’t notice it. It’s a side story in a Thiam series. In this, Derek. Chris, Peter and Morrell (they couldn’t even be bothered to spell her name right) sit down with Deaton and blame him for everything that happened in the show.
- why did Cora get all the way to South America? Deaton’s fault.
- why did Laura get lured back to Beacon Hills? Deaton’s fault.
- why was Peter able to murder Laura on Hale land? The wards should have prevented this from happening! (Wards don’t exist in the show). Deaton’s fault.
- why did Deaton put Stiles though the ritual when he knew he was a Spark (which didn’t exist in the show). That’s why the nogitsune chose him! (Deaton’s fault.)
- which means, of course, ultimately, that Allison’s death was also -- you guessed it! -- Deaton’s fault.
- and of course, Deaton favored Scott over the Hales! How dare he!
These are all presented as if Deaton was more than just an advisor to the Hales, but their fricking House Elf. To top it all off, Peter who has been presented before in the series like a mega-rich benevolent sassy uncle, but as we all know was actually a serial killer and a man who used children, including is own daughter, in an attempt to kill someone he didn’t like, carves a “Rune of Penance” into Deaton’s back like he was a runaway house slave.
This person publishing this story will get away with it. Leaving a comment on this story -- such as “this is disgusting vile racist nonsense” -- will only have you treated like the bad guy. BNF will scream “don’t like, don’t read’ but there is not a single tag on the story that says “This work will blame a black man for everything that went wrong in the show.” Going to the AO3 board will do nothing -- they have told me more than once that they don’t police content unless it’s directed at a specific real person.
I was disgusted to my very core by this story, but I can only attempt to imagine what a black reader would feel like while reading this. And AO3 will do nothing. There is no mechanic for objecting to this. No mechanic for saying “This story allows a white serial killer to treat a black man like his family’s personal property even though slavery’s been illegal in the United States for over a century” while the heroes of the show (including his own sister) look on and approve.
But that’s the point. This is what they want. A fantasy where a rich white family can treat black men like slaves. Where a Latino boy rising to prominence through courage and compassion is a danger and a failure. They love the trope of the rich white family of born wolves (or whatever -- The Originals is five seasons of a rich white family killing people -- a lot of them minorities -- for having the nerve to tell them “no”).
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