#they end up burning tanneyhill to the ground btw

[futuremrscameron]

https://www.tumblr.com/futuremrscameron/773247130308657152/foxy-and-pope-are-really-each-others-foils-hold

Could you expand on this (if you haven’t already ofc) bc I could see pope having a bit of secret hero worship of foxy bc she’s essentially what his parents would want for him - a black kid that made it out of the cut through her intellect. I would assume apprehension of her and her motives would probably take precedent till she distances herself from the Camerons.

But foxy is interesting bc though she “made it out” like pope is expected to, the class and race discrepancies within the obx universe is so steep that even she is still a bit at the whim of the kooks that she comes into contact with. She lowkey reminds me of the pet to threat phenomenon that a lot of black women face in the work place. Also I see them being parallels in the sense that both seem to be stuck in a cycle with people they care for but will never fully get them. This is probably more for foxy bc she’s never gonna really be “one of them” despite her proximity to ward. While I do think the pogues genuinely love pope (and now he has Cleo), there’s always going to be a fundamental disconnect with him being a poor black kid. Roxy’s case is a mind fuck bc she’s likely filling a pseudo daughter role with ward and then a psychosexual role with rafe bc he’s… rafe.

It must be so insidious watching rafe melt that cross down for her as someone that’s been in pope’s position. Everyone always focuses in on the jj/rafe beef but rafe seems to have an almost pathological need to humble pope. Hell, though it wasn’t under altruistic motives, even Ward was side eyeing rafe for melting what was something special. I feel like people over look that piece bc it would lead to the uncomfortable convo of like hmm why does rafe act so weird with pope (and by extension kie). Lowkey can’t even blame them bc the show doesn’t even go there fully.

*tangent but I wish we got more about what pope would’ve done if this whole treasure hunt didn’t derail things. We get the scholarship piece and we get that running gag in s1 of him wanting to be a coroner/interested in death. That’s a pretty niche profession and his parents seem like very practical people, like how did he come to that? But that immediately gets dropped and only seemed to be played for laughs/to drive home he’s a bit weird. I would’ve loved for that to be tied to the cross. Possibly a supernatural element of him feeling connected but not knowing just yet*

Anyway I’m sorry this is long 💀 just my two cents ❤️☝🏽

i talk about rafe's anti-blackness and how he treats pope and kiara here and here

(so glad you asked, i've been meaning to follow up on this)

foxy is a "success story", she's the first in her family to finish college and for the heywards she's proof that smart black kids can "make it out" if they work hard. bobby and cara are always telling pope that he should be more like her, pope hates when his parents do this but he does thinks she's cool. "anomaly" is the best way to describe how pope views foxy, she's successful and living the life that most in the cut can only dream of but she looks miserable.

whenever he sees her in the cut while she's visiting her family she looks so happy but in figure eight she seems cold and distant like she's wearing a mask of indifference to hide the anger and grief she feels. the figure eight residents and the camerons aren't special she's met hundreds if not thousands like them her whole life so their comments on her intelligence, appearance, and qualifications don't bother her as much.

she gets more homesick as the seasons go on but like pope she feels like she can't "fail" because it would spit in the face of everything their families have sacrificed for them. she sees herself in pope and wants to stop him from repeating her mistakes so she unofficially takes him under her wing. they both know the hard truth that it doesn't matter they never truly "make it out", it's a change of scenery (and economic status) with the same problems. sure they're not struggling to make ends meet anymore but they're still the other™️

her relationship with the camerons is all over the place; hostile (rose/rafe), sexual harassment (rafe), emotionally manipulative (ward), mutual understanding (sarah), babysitter (wheezie)

rose sees her as a threat and thinks she's full of herself. rafe, i go into depth about how his brand of white guy treats black women they're attracted to here and he's lucky they're not coworkers cause he'd be reported to HR. he's not hostile like rose is, constantly (turning her nose up at her and questioning her qualifications) but he doesn't invade her space, give unwanted compliments, and remind her of her position when she "steps out of line". he also sees her as extra competition for ward's affection which fucks with him almost as bad as sarah getting all his attention cause she's an "outsider".

ward has treated her like a psuedo daughter since she started working for him. he's the type of white boss to say he sees potential in her and blur professional boundaries but the moment she undermines him or surpasses him here comes the strict no nonsense boss and cold distance (i know some people don't think ward is a master manipulator, just a father trying his best but i call bullshit he knows what he's doing, basically pitted all his kids against each other for his love and affection) sorry for the tangent. even when foxy seems to finally be free from their grasp when she quits, they still find a way to drag her back in (trying to stop rafe from melting the cross, helping an injured ward)

rafe melting the cross down was probably the most racist thing he did in that show, tied with hate criming pope. she's been helping pope with the legal aspects of finding and reclaiming the pope so when she finds foxy feels responsible even though she tried to stop him and it acts as her final straw. she's especially broken up about it cause she knows pope was doing this for his family/ancestors, it's about keeping their memory alive and making sure they're not written out of history not for thr money or recognition. in this universe she's the one to tell pope and tells him she will defend him in court if he kills him and gets caught.

"rafe seems to have an almost pathological need to humble pope"

his beef with pope is purely racist despite what others (white rafe fans) want you to believe. he jumped pope for no damn reason, if he really wanted to get revenge for topper he would've beat up jj, pope had nothing to do with it and i don't think rafe is emotionally intelligent enough to hurt pope to get to jj (emotionally/mentally). literally told him to stay on his side of the island and to know his place, whether the creators and writers realize it or not.

he was late to the hunt for the cross but it is not a coincidence that he and pope were after the same thing at the same time (i believe the writers knew what they were doing to some extent) and when he later melts it down sure it was to spite his dad and prove his worth to him but he was also glad to get one up on pope you can't tell me it wasn't. he knew at that point that the cross was a historical artifact and rightfully belongs to pope and his family.

the writers don't care enough about the black characters to even consider the implication of melting a cross that belongs to a black family. i truly believe their knowledge of racial dynamics maxes at "racism bad." no thoughts about the many microagressions from rafe or what it means to have the camerons live on a plantation so i don't expect them to understand or care about pope's character and why he wants that scholarship so bad (feels he needs to get out but suffocating under the pressure) or explore his home life or interests or drives or the xenophobia directed at cleo by that random kook guy in s4

(sorry i was all over the place i hope i answered this to your satisfaction i really loved this ask)