Does Diversity mean you can be racist?

[Contessa Donatella]

In soaps, unfortunately as in life also, we have racism, misogyny & sexism, ageism & homophobia. Maybe there's another ism that I am missing. But, the point of talking about any of these and the point of talking about random characters who get shafted, well, they're both valid but they are two completely separate conversations, ya know?

Besides the hate mail the shows get, they are afraid of losing advertisers who typically are not keen on their product or brand name being associated with controversy, or if those advertisers are hit by organized hate groups.

I have been trying to recall all of the details of the DAYS storyline, in the 70s I believe, of David and the Grant family. For that time they took the relationship between David & the Grant daughter (Valerie?) very far. It was a very interesting storyline that fit within the character & show history and it accomplished that aspect of soaps where someone who has never encountered that in real life, vicariously experiences through their story.

[Cheap21]

I think the character of Layla sucks. They should have dropped her years ago. She hasnt served much of a purpose since Eva left. They only keep her around as the token black girl and its been obvious

[rhinohide]

Wading back into treacherous waters. Any AA character would have been a "token" if not written for. All that's required for Layla to be something other than a token is a story. Why bring on new minority characters that NO ONE cares about and develop stories for them when there is a minority character on the canvas that at least one viewer (ME) likes and wants to see more of. I would rather see a story for Layla than something written for Gigi.

[DavidEvanSmith]

Layla's being criminally wasted on OLTL. Especially since Brody's openly expressed attraction to her, and Layla has a loyal history with Adriana, which could place Layla right in the middle of the Gigi/Rex/Shane/Brody story.

I said in another thread, Brody and Layla need to have a fling, Layla gets pregnant, Shane gets sick and it's assumed Layla's baby would be able to donate bone marrow or something to save Shane, and that's what forces the truth about Shane's paternity and blows everything out of the water. But it sounds like Gigi's going to spill the beans sooner than she should, which is denying Layla Brody's child! That bitch Gigi!

Layla was originally introduced as a love interest for Antonio, and was chemistry tested with Nash (they dated a little, didn't they?), and I've heard A LOT about viewers wanting her with Cristian. So to the poster who said she's only been earmarked for Vincent, that's not true. But I did always find the Layla/Vincent pairing extremely lazy.

Now, back to the thread topic at hand....... is it more racist to showcase interracial couples or to create strong black couples with good storyline and integration with the rest of the cast?

Personally, I don't see why I can't have both. I'm STILL mad about the Fryes being edged out of AMC in favor of the Hubbards when AMC was perched to have TWO core African-American families on the canvas, and families that are fairly extensive. Derek, Livia, Danielle, Terrence, biracial Jamal, and Mimi all fall under the Frye header, while Jesse, Angie, Frankie, and Cassandra round out the Hubbard clan, and that's not counting Jesse's off-canvas brother Eugene, Angie's mom Pat, Cassie's adoptive father/Jesse lookalike Jacob Foster, whoever Cassandra's biological parents are, and any illegitimate child Jesse might have fathered in the last 20 years that he's been MIA. AND the Woods family Samuel and Dre, Carmen/Randi (who I'm guessing are interracial mother/daughter), and Reggie Montgomery who is legitimately tied to Jack and Greenlee and Erica's family. When Julia was still on the canvas, I was actually thinking they could resurrect Noah and they'd have the Fryes, Hubbards AND Keefers represented on the canvas at once. There's a MILLION African American characters we could have, but it seems AMC wants to edge out a bunch of these characters because it would just make the show too black. And I think that's pretty disappointing because I'd rather the canvas develop organically, and if AMC is just gonna go through a black renaissance, then TPTB should just let it!

I've had a love/hate relationship with Neil Winters being with black women all the time (I'm a casual viewer anyway, so I never saw the Neil/Victoria pairing). In some ways I like it because some black men are only into black women... and guess what....... THAT'S OKAY!!! Does it make him racist? No! It's just a preference! You wouldn't know it to look at me, but I'm biracial black/white, and I'm gay, and I'm not generally sexually attracted to black men. Not racist, just a preference. But it narrows Neil's options if that IS his preference, because the canvas apparently only ALLOWS for so many black females at one time.

I'd personally love for someone to wonder why Lily is always involved with white men. Have a black model rival of Lily's throw it in her face in some diva argument that Lily has a romantic block on men of color, and maybe it'll strike a nerve and Lily will start to explore why she is attracted to the men she's attracted to. But soaps are afraid of self-exploration when it comes to race relations too. Isn't it okay for Lily to question why she doesn't date black men? Isn't it okay for her not to know why at first?

What happened to Devon being in love with Lily? Was that dropped?

[ReddFoxx]

I don't think there's any racism involved, the Cane/Lily and the Daniel/Lily breakups were just plot devices, but that's not to say soaps aren't skittish about this sort of thing. The PGP Classic Soaps Blog did a post about interracial couples on soaps last month.

http://pgpclassicsoaps.blogspot.com/2008/0...-man-newly.html

[miajere]

I think that was tptb way of shoving her into a corner- the black backburner. I thought their pairing was another lazy writing attempt. Then they would parade around Genoa City visiting friends and offering insight and advice---(rolling eyes).

Cane made sense in theory- but in chemistry, I always found these two Lame. I really thought Lily and Kevin could have had something interesting- especially after the entire Daniel and Kevin secret was let out of the bag. Cane just doesn't belong with this age group.

[DeeeDee]

How is that preference NOT racist?

[DeeeDee]

Lily & Colleen should never EVER be paired with Kevin.

[JackPeyton]

[MoTheGreat]

I haven't watch AMC in awhile. Are these to related?

[marceline]

Racism is about access to opportunity. It's about being allowed to fully participate in one's society. Who one chooses to date is intensely personal. Nobody is required to offer "equal access under the law" to their heart or their bed.

[Contessa Donatella]

Carmen & Randi definitely know each other from way way back. Unclear whether they were friends growing up or cousins or sisters or what.

[rhythmchyc]

[rhythmchyc]

The way Y&R was written last year, I'm surprised those hacks never DID put either couple together. Chumps.

Thankfully, the new team sorta know what they're doing.

[Greg's GL]

Not sure if this is OT, but for me, I prefer latinos and black men instead of white guys (I'm white). I wouldn't consider myself racist against my own race because of it though. I just find latinos and black guys more attractive.