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Y&R: Can you be racist and have diversity at the same time


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I asked the question before and got some amazing responses and I'm grateful to all that gave me their opinions. Unfortunately, the question arises once again because of a certain poster on the www.cbs.com message board. Now, I know this could be just a person who absolutely hates Lily with the hate Hitler had for my Jewish brothers and sisters or someone who is telling the truth but I still want your opinions.

According to this poster, Big Bumpkin Lily Haters...

He or she spoke with someone from the Soaps in Depth offices and they said the following...

Cane and Kate will be on their February, Valentines Day issue.

They also said, the fight between Cane and Billy will be nothing special

Cane will fall in love with Kate

Billy will choose his daughter over Lily

The Lilliam coupling is only to distract Lame fans

The story is going to be about Billy/Kate/Cane

Lily will be coupled with another minority in the fall

The Powers that Be don't want an Interracial Couple on Y&R

Now, I have seen this movie before and it doesn't end well. I tend not to believe posters who have hate in their screen names but I think back to John/Mamie, Neil/Victoria and Brad/Olivia. Granted these couplings were not that popular but they were interracially based. Then I think about same sex couples. Whether you are for or against them I have NEVER seen on Y&R. Why is that? They have never made that leap.

After seeing this on another board I just wanted to take the pulse of the most important Soap Opera Board on the World Wide Web.

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I don't care what anyone says, there IS an undercurrent of racism as far as interracial couples goes that has pervaded daytime for years. Back to the Angie and Cliff days.... They are always short term romances that never seem to work out.....hmmmm, wonder why?

I think Lindsay and RJ on OLTL could have been dynamite together on OLTL

I don't really want to touch any more on this subject but I do feel there is racism on daytime. Just as there is racism still in many parts of the US. And I am sure those "fans" write letters to the shows....

Touchy subject.

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Thank you. There has always been. Ironically, we just elected a bi-racial President who won some of the most conservative areas of our beloved Country, yet the "so-called" liberals in Hollywood and New York still have MAJOR problems with showing, interracial love on the screen. It's really a very pathetic problem and if one line of what this poster said is true there is no hope for Y&R. They talk out of both sides of their mouth. They put African-Americans on the screen but refuse to give them to meat of a storyline. They use them to hype others. They employ gay actors but refuse to give them any kind of storyline, bravo to ATWTs and PASSIONS.

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OLTL really needs a strong african american family. And also, considering that the show's headwriter and executive producer are both gay, I am surprised that the show has yet to have a major gay character

Y&R writes african americans very well- they are written as people, not as the "niche black storyline"...

But as far as interracial couples- I don't care what show it is- there is something up.

And as far as CBS goes, their shows, EVEN GL- are still very high rated down south-

They do not want to alienate their audiences... and if you have ever been to the south you understand what I am getting at... but I don't want to stereotype southerners either.

Again, Touchy subject.

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OLTL did have one decades ago but they no longer care. There are no words to describe what I think of Brian Frons. They did a great job years ago with Billy but since then, nothing. Y&R is simply a major disappointment to me. I stopped watching years ago, then returned when I saw a storyline that appealed to me (Daniel and Lily), I continued to watch during the transition. But now, it's back to watching Hardball with Chris Matthews (I love him).

I really don't get it but I guess it's not mine to understand. If people don't care what they do they will do whatever they want to.

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As far as interracial couples, I guess Cane & Lily and Duncan & Jessica lasted longer than any ever in daytime. Duncan & Jessica were even allowed to have a child together.

I think ATWT did pretty good by them. Of course with Jessica she has never had any luck at romance - they just never seemed to allow it.

Sadly interracial couples is still one of those taboos as far as daytime. It is one that seemed to finally be getting somewhere with couples like Duncan/Jessica but sadly daytime backed off even having black characters on their shows that much.

And of course OLTL did have the makings of 2 interracial super couples (Cristian/Evangeline and Todd/Evangeline) but they could not hold on to Renee Goldsberry. Those 2 couples were both wildly popular and had big fan bases. I personally liked Antonio/Kerri more but they got rid of Sherri Saum too.

Sadly my biggest fear is that as budgets get worse we may lose more and more of our minority characters since often they are isolated or token characters and not fully integrated into the canvas. And often those type characters are seen as expendable by the powers that be.

Y&R used to be better about that but lately they have really isolated Neil and gang.

I had always felt after Generations came along and it did have a fairly good fanbase and following that some soap opera would introduce a major black family but sadly it never happened.

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I don't think that Lily and Cane are going to last when they reunite because I think that Lily's first love Daniel might come back to the picture again to make the Lane storyline more interested again because MG said he also wants a Lily and Daniel reunion too

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You know, all this talk of interracial couples being taboo and soaps not wanting to "go there" is bull to me. First of all, this *problem* ( <_<:rolleyes: ) could be solved by having more black couples in the first place. This whole thing makes me so sick and I can feel myself getting worked up, but these shows try to "be good" by having black characters on them, yet they are isolated or whitewashed (for lack of a politer term) by coupling them with white characters. As if the majority of daytime fans are so threatened by blacks that they need to *safe 'em up* by linking them romantically to whites. Give me a fuggin break. Interracial relationships are very real, and like any other relationship, can be very beautiful. But soaps aren't concerned with the politics of interracial relationships these days (not on screen at least), those tales are passe. Soaps think, "We've been there, we've done that, mixed couples are accepted now", so they use interracial relationships for convenience, as means of keeping their shows light, bright, and damn near white. "Why bring on another black actor to couple with the token we've already got when we can put them with one of our white characters and they can have even whiter black children for the next generation?" OUCH? Yes. But I wouldn't say it if I didn't think it was true.

YR's Lily is for all intents and purposes a tan white girl, and I don't think the show would have it any other way (Davetta who?). She's never had a black boyfriend (I guess that's coming?), and that's okay b/c there are young black ladies across the country who are like Lily, but that is not at all representative of the majoity of young black women who watch YR, let alone young black women in general. Is it YR's job to be "socially relevant"? No. But why should I as a viewer give a damn about a show who doesn't give a damn about telling stories of people like me? As the other poster said, the show used to bea lot better about this, if only through the character of Dru, and even she was pushing it sometimes. I'm totally surprised that they even brought on black love interests for Remy on GL, never expected that. Look at AMC's Jesse/Rebecca, or OLTL's Hank/Nora, it seems to me that a soap will take the opportunity to cast a white actor over a black one whenever they see the chance. And where are Hank and Rachel today?

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On OLTL, Nora Hannen was married to Hank Gannon and they had a child - Rachel. That was back in the 90's? -not sure of my timeline there, quite a s/l about their family and this was before they brought on RJ.

I was so sorry to see Hank Gannon written out. :(

We found out after the fact, that RJ fathered a daughter Keri, with a blonde woman, who married Antonio. She is (was) Jamie's mom.

Seems to me the soaps - ABC anyhow, used to have a much richer canvas of diversity that has dwindled down. I blame Brian Frons (but then I blame him for just about everything including global earth changes.LOL)

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