After interviewing both Davetta Sherwood and Christel Khalil, I really got a sense of what happened behind the scenes. Both girls felt differently about the situation. I think that DS got the short end of the stick in my opinion. She didn't say those things about CK, she actually had nothing but nice things to say during the interview. CK wanted her job back and felt ready, unfortunately that meant that DS was out the door. With her exit, "outside sources" started something that never happened!

Personally I think both ladies were really fun to talk to.

Thanks for clearing it up. What I find most interesting about DS she came off more mature. CK didn't have to bring up stuff that she wasn't witness to when it came to DS. To me she childish like how CK plays Lily. With VR I'm sure the cast don't like VR. But it's still none of CK business to annouce that about the other cast memebers.

Edited October 4, 200916 yr by MoTheGreat

No you most certainly cannot. Black fans just *seeing* black people on screen isn't enough anymore, they want to *experience* black people, and VR's Dru popped off the screen in a way that no other black woman in daytime has managed to do. Princesses like Evangeline, Layla, Rachel, and Lily are all fine and good, but fans are hungry for the Drus of the world. That's the black woman who is criminally unrepresented on soaps. Debbi Morgan, whose Angie was a princess herself, is the only actress on soaps that I can think of who offers the authenticity of most black women I know, yet she is a woman of a certain age who isn't given the opportnuity to mix it up like an actress ten or twenty years her junior. Debbi was lamenting in SOD almost twenty years ago (see, we're STILL talking about this) how there are no black Erica Kanes, no black Dorian Lords on soaps (can't remember if this was before or after Doreen on Generations, point is, at the time she didn't exist or no longer existed). This is a character type that all fans love, and I think a black version in particular would be especially appreciated. Dru was our last glimpse of that.

You nailed this! I think there is room in the soap world for the Evangelines and Lilys of the world. I loved Evangeline and thought she was a great character. We need more of those characters around so we can get our version of Dorian Lord to play opposite of. I would love Evangeline and Rachel fighting over Kevin Buchanan.

The closest black villainess we had was Vicky Spaulding on GL or Diahann Caroll's character on Dynasty. When the black soap fans lose a character on a show it's not an ordinary loss like it is with the rest of the soap characters because there are so few black characters. This is where the lack of long-term committment hurts.

Edited October 4, 200916 yr by Leia

When the black soap fans lose a character on a show it's not an ordinary loss like it is with the rest of the soap characters because there are so few black characters. This is where the lack of long-term committment hurts.

Yep.

Also, we got to meet Drucilla the old school Bill Bell way. He introduced the character, but let it grow with Victoria Rowell. That just doesn't happen very often any more. Spinelli on GH is the closest I have seen to old school soap star bringing more and the writers going for it in a long time, (not judging the quality, just the fact that he clearly brought the character with him to the stage, and TPTB ran with what he brought).

I have watched a lot of soaps, but the only time I know I felt the black characters were fully integrated and mattered was on Y&R. The last family of color that I remember being as equally integrated was the Vega family on OLTL. The shows treat both of them like they matter, with cast changes, they still write for them (or used to until recently). James Reilly always understood needing diversity on his shows, I just couldn't stand the writing for most of them.

I loved Drucilla when she came on the show because she was unique in the soap landscape. She still is.

I think GL did a good job with the Grants and Speakes, but that seemed to mostly be with Nancy Curlee, because they began to be phased out once she left, and JFP hasn't had any time for minority characters on her other soaps.

I also wonder if AMC might get more black viewers if the show actually bothered to write for the characters.

Edited October 4, 200916 yr by CarlD2

The thing with the black characters on OLTL or AMC or GL (remember Paul Rauch and the black Spauldings?) is that it never lasts so they don't build that black audience. You can't expect OLTL get instantly get a huge black audience when they've already been burned much before. What happened to Keri, Hank, RJ and Evangeline? How long to Layla sit around with no storyline? How long did it take until they tried to bring a black presence into the show again? Things like that make the viewer think you aren't invested in the long term, so why should they be?

Then AMC wasted all that money bringing back Angie and Jesse, their son, heavily promoting it and then made them the token black characters. Their storylines are terrible and always secondary. It's sad because Debbi Morgan is the best actress on contract with that show. Also the most dynamic and versatile. They could take Angie in any direction and mix her with any group and it would work if the writing was there. But they won't pursue it so the viewers won't stay.

I don't count the black Spauldings because there was one, and she never really had anything above a C-list story.

I can't say how black viewers feel but I do wonder how betrayed they may have felt with what OLTL did to Rachel and to Keri. The Keri story was just awful, she became a psycho to prop blonde princess Jessica. Rachel was slowly marginalized, and was finally beaten to a pulp, then made into a killer and shipped off to prison. She was then dropped in a few times a decade, with absolutely no real purpose other than to hold Nora's hand.

If I were a black soap fan I can see where that may seem like a slap in the face. And that's not even getting into what Rauch did to black actors.

It's a shame because I do think they're making more of an effort at the moment.

It's a shame because I do think they're making more of an effort at the moment.

because they want to, or feel they have to in order to stay in the game?

Whenever I read the term 'race card', I always think of it as a lazy dismissive way of demeaning a person's REAL concerns. Victoria Rowell played 'the race card'. What does that mean? She's not a team player for not accepting the crap the writers have leveled at minority characters? This is a soap with no meaningful minority representation, other than the infrequently utilized Winters family, and that killed of the first contract Asian American lead male after bragging and getting publicity for hiring him.

When Peter Bergman referred to VR as 'crazy' for her comments? I was DONE with him. WTG, ******* He dismissed her without refuting any of her claims. That, in itself, shows you what Victoria Rowell was up against on a daily basis. His comments, in my book, came across as incredibly self-important, ignorant, and self-indulgent. Things were good for Bergman, so they're good across the board? Funny, because the man was in a storyline about his Vietnamese family... written off as quick as an eyeblink, not odd to him? NO lead actress/supporting actress Emmys for black actresses (as someone posted in another thread at this site). Not once in the history of the Emmys and Rowell is just 'crazy'?

As for Khalil, she can't go FAST enough for me. What brought her back to the YnR? Did she have even ONE job after leaving the show? Who else wanted her?

Edited October 8, 200916 yr by NorrthCafe

As for Khalil, she can't go FAST enough for me. What brought her back to the YnR? Did she have even ONE job after leaving the show? Who else wanted her?

God don't you just wish she'd catch her second "wind" and go away alread? Make some room for others with more talent (could be almost anybody)and the ability to make a bigger better impact

Whenever I read the term 'race card', I always think of it as a lazy dismissive way of demeaning a person's REAL concerns. Victoria Rowell played 'the race card'. What does that mean? She's not a team player for not accepting the crap the writers have leveled at minority characters? This is a soap with no meaningful minority representation, other than the infrequently utilized Winters family, and that killed of the first contract Asian American lead male after bragging and getting publicity for hiring him.

When Peter Bergman referred to VR as 'crazy' for her comments? I was DONE with him. WTG, ******* He dismissed her without refuting any of her claims. That, in itself, shows you what Victoria Rowell was up against on a daily basis. His comments, in my book, came across as incredibly self-important, ignorant, and self-indulgent. Things were good for Bergman, so they're good across the board? Funny, because the man was in a storyline about his Vietnamese family... written off as quick as an eyeblink, not odd to him? NO lead actress/supporting actress Emmys for black actresses (as someone posted in another thread at this site). Not once in the history of the Emmys and Rowell is just 'crazy'?

As for Khalil, she can't go FAST enough for me. What brought her back to the YnR? Did she have even ONE job after leaving the show? Who else wanted her?

Exactly!!!

This thread is still going? I clicked on it when it was first posted, expecting to read something huge, but nope. What's the big deal? Y&R = teh suck. This isn't news.

Whenever I read the term 'race card', I always think of it as a lazy dismissive way of demeaning a person's REAL concerns. Victoria Rowell played 'the race card'. What does that mean? She's not a team player for not accepting the crap the writers have leveled at minority characters? This is a soap with no meaningful minority representation, other than the infrequently utilized Winters family, and that killed of the first contract Asian American lead male after bragging and getting publicity for hiring him.

When Peter Bergman referred to VR as 'crazy' for her comments? I was DONE with him. WTG, ******* He dismissed her without refuting any of her claims. That, in itself, shows you what Victoria Rowell was up against on a daily basis. His comments, in my book, came across as incredibly self-important, ignorant, and self-indulgent. Things were good for Bergman, so they're good across the board? Funny, because the man was in a storyline about his Vietnamese family... written off as quick as an eyeblink, not odd to him? NO lead actress/supporting actress Emmys for black actresses (as someone posted in another thread at this site). Not once in the history of the Emmys and Rowell is just 'crazy'?

As for Khalil, she can't go FAST enough for me. What brought her back to the YnR? Did she have even ONE job after leaving the show? Who else wanted her?

I feel the same way. I still think they ask CK is there racism & knowing her because she's not in touch with her black side saying no. Ya'll let me sit at ya'll table. & ya'll let me drink at ya'll drinking fountain. Okay I'm stuck in the 50s right now but you get my point.

The lack of concern with the other actors about racism is very disturbing to me. How can PB tell a black person what they should feel about how their character being treated on Y&R?

CK is "not in touch with her black side"? GMAB. Black is a color - not a "side".

I can't believe this thread is still going either. And I especially can't believe all of this "race" crap.

Edited October 9, 200916 yr by y&r_fan

CK is "not in touch with her black side"? GMAB. Black is a color - not a "side".

I can't believe this thread is still going either. And I especially can't believe all of this "race" crap.

Excuse me, but how can you not believe this thread is still ongoing? This is obviously an issue that alot of people are passionate about(as passionate as you are about your "Australian heritage") and this really wasn't a thread that you had to read. You know the people coming to this thread are extremely vocal about their dislike of Christel Khalil. Unless you've been living under a rock the size of Tasmania, then you know who the mainstays are in threads that relate to Khalil and Y&R. There is really no excuse for you to come into a thread where you can already know what people are going to say and, instead of contributing something important that makes people think, yet again, you present a pathetic attempt at starting some kind of cheap controversy. Drama where(in an attempt to elicit sympathy for Ms. Khalil) you predictably get your feelings hurt and the play the "poor me" card and Toups is forced to shut down the thread.

You knew exactly what people were saying about Christel Khalil before you even opened this thread. It's your place to either agree/disagree and state why(with a reason aside from, "this race crap") and then move on. But, of course, you throw yourself into the lion's den, ready for someone to rip you to shreds.

Edited October 9, 200916 yr by bellcurve