I think they thought they actually cared about her, but never actually did because when you do you don’t ignore their pain and suffering like that. I think their heads were so far up their own ass, and that they were so used to Bonnie solving it for them that their privilege didn’t allow them to think about her side of things. They only had half-ass comment here and there about her well being but none of that matters unless they actually do anything. Bonnie did things, she was a loyal and good best friend which is funny because you never really hear about that from the characters on the show, but they’ll go on and on about what a good person Elena is despite her never showing those traits, what a great person Caroline is despite her compliance and ability to bend her morals for her friends. Bonnie gets none of that she just gets called judgemental which is a criticism that honesty fits Caroline more but I never see her called, I consistently only see this in reference to black women.

Basically racism was so ingrained in the show and, subsequently, the characters that their version of caring is pretty much the equivalent of a child’s love for their black nanny in every “happy slave” piece of media. They care about her, but only in reference to what they can do for them but TVD’s worse because a child is actually ignorant and can learn, the MFG can’t and as shown by the end of the series, never can learn better.