In his texts, theorist Edward Said posits a theory of cultural identity asserting people define themselves in opposition to others; there is always a dichotomy between “us” and “them.”  The “us” in Said’s studies are the (white) Europeans (and Euroamericans), while the “them” are all other, darker cultures, specifically the cultures of the East.  In representations of this dichotomy, “the Oriental is irrational, depraved (fallen), childlike, ‘different’; thus the European is rational, virtuous, mature, ‘normal’” (Orientalism 40).  The European, then, claims his/her superiority based on the perceived inferiority of the “Other.”  This in turn gives the superior culture the alleged “right” to punish and subject the “Other”; as Said states, this punishment is required “when ‘they’ misbehaved or became rebellious, because ‘they’ mainly understood force or violence best; ‘they’ were not like ‘us,’ and for that reason deserved to be ruled” (Culture xi).

This same theory can be applied to the Buffyverse, in which the “us” (Buffy and the Scoobies) are clearly defined by their whiteness, while the “them” (the forces of evil the gang faces every week) are often portrayed as dark and sinister.  The Buffyverse privileges whiteness above all else; for example, even Kendra, the black slayer who appears briefly in this all-white world, is described by Lynne Edwards as “tragic mulatta.”  Although this label is troubling, Kendra’s death is inevitable, not because of her “tragic” status, but because a heroic woman of color cannot survive in Buffy’s white world.  The heroes’ status is predicated on their whiteness, and anything that threatens that whiteness must be, and even deserves to be, destroyed.