Diversity in Soaps: Black Characters, Gay Characters, Latino Characters

[MoTheGreat]

Well I'm not going to watch. So keep me updated with they start to connecting Kish ,Rachal, & Shaun. & I still won't watch this show. I'm really upset what they did to Evangeline. & none of her friends remember her. I'm talking about Todd & John.

[soapfan770]

Just because I'm Native American/American Indian(either term works for me) myself but nobody and I mean nobody ever attempts to portray us. Or when they do it's done very horrendously. I doubt this will ever change. I can't think of any NA/AI characters on daytime ever.

[NorrthCafe]

I don't know that I would have changed a WORD of this had I written it myself. I think I've 'despised' GH writers since Justice was killed and his body was found stuffed in the trunk of a car. He was a damned Quartermaine! The writers have no love for the Quartermaines but putting him in the trunk of a car!?!?!?! Once Monti Sharp was cast in the role, I knew where they were going with the character. They were going to give us more of GL's 'David Grant' than GH's 'Justice Ward'. They took a refined, elegant, well-educated, brilliant lawyer and transformed him into something unrecognizable. Don't get me started on Epiphany. I can't even watch her. I FF all of her scenes. I pretend she's not even on the show. I have no problem with the actress, just the role.

What they've done to Sonny is so degrading that I actually feel sorry for Maurice Benard. He's such a good actor and he's been given such a limited range of emotions and storylines to play. I have to wonder how much of MB's time is spent fighting the writers on any stereotypical behavior/dialogue/storyline they want him to play out. Did they want more 'accent' from him? Did they want Sonny to throw out occasional use of Spanish? Why is there no counter to Sonny?

While OLTL has a much better track record with diversity than the other ABC soaps, I'm also still stunned by the recasting of 'Blair Daimler'(Mia Korf).... I don't think any other soap has changed the race of a character with so little backlash and apparently without a hint of shame... I love that 'colorblind casting' usually works in only one direction - though the stunt casting of A. Martinez as Roy DiLucca deserves some attention. While I love KDP in the role of Blair, I think the loss of Blair's identity should go down as one of soaps most shameful moments.... followed by YnR bragging that it had placed daytime's first leading male Asian American actor on contract and then shortly after killing off his character, and GH's decimation of the 'Asian Quarter'.

[jfung79]

soapfan770, I don't know of any Native American characters in daytime before either. Harding Lemay grew up part of his early years on or near a reservation, and I believe is part Native American (Mohawk), but I don't think he ever wrote any Native American characters into Another World.

I don't remember Zeke on AMC being almost involved with someone so you're probably thinking of Marshall on AW. No, neither actor who played Zeke (Ruben Santiago-Hudson and Joe Morton - I didn't know till I looked it up just now that there were two, for some reason I only remembered one) appears to have been any of the Marshalls on AW. But, I looked it up, Joe Morton, one of the actors who played Zeke on AMC, did play Abel Marsh on Another World (another character on during the '83-'85 period I mentioned earlier when Lloyd Gold was one of the writers).

I don't know what the story is about why they dropped Marshall/Felicia. I was still in elementary school or junior high when that happened. Wow, even as late as the mid-90s they couldn't do a black male, white female romance? It shows that in some ways things have gotten better since then, as I don't think that would be actively stopped by the network or P&G now (although there still aren't many such romances).

[SFK]

I swear, just when I think I've gotten over it, someone goes and mentions Mia Korf and I get mad all over again! I of course in no way blame Kassie DePaiva, but recasting Blair with a Kentucky fried blonde was criminal. Imagine little Amerasian Starr and Jack... and assuming they still would have given Starr all that story, just imagine how wonderful it would have been with a young girl of asian decent playing such front burner stories on a soap.

[jfung79]

Oh, I missed seeing this ... Thanks for posting the correction! It's good she's not gone for good. I did some more searching and turns out she actually replied to someone personally that the whole leaving thing was a fan rumor but she would be low key for awhile (yeah, how is that a change, lol?) *and* they are hoping some of Bonnie's family members will be returning in future. Hmm ...

[Doyen]

I think "diversity" for the sake of diversity is corny, placating, imposed, fake and borderline condescending. The soaps hardly ever get it right, and this late in the game, I doubt they ever will. In order for 'minority' characters to be more than plastic tokens, they can't be viewed as minorities (which means all the over-analyzing needs to cease.) Additionally, you need people of color behind the scenes in creative positions, and from what I can tell, that isn't the case with any of the soaps still on the air. You basically have white writers who're either too clueless, idealistic or unenthused about writing for 'minority' characters in amongst the others. Furthermore, I think complaining viewers contribute to it. The minute a 'minority' character is written in an unfavorable/unwinning way (or an actor of color has behind the scenes drama with the higher ups) people start screaming conspiracy theories all over the place. With 'minority' characters...

• They can't be too negative or villain-y...
  • They can't be too put-upon or tragic...
  • They can't date other black characters because that's keeping them "isolated," but if they date interracially then some see it as them being put up for validation from a great white hope (and Lord forbid if they lose in an interracial love triangle) ...

  [*]If they neck roll, aggressively get in peoples faces or drop a slang phrase, that's too stereotypical...but then if they're too wholesome, polite or upper crust, then they're "not black enough."

That's too many contradictions, and it's probably easier for soap writers to stick with their tried and true than it is to introduce 'minority' characters and have them scrutinized in ways that no soap character ought to be. Basically they have to be quasi-political figureheads posed as soap characters and just a little more real than the rest of the fictional canvas, which is bullshit. On OLTL, I adored Evangeline, but I think her rabid, paranoid, selfish and quick-to-call-TPTB-racists fanbase contributed to the demise of the character and the actresses ultimate exit. As someone else said, white characters don't get these kind of stringent expectations placed on them. They can act up all over the place and represent every tired stereotype or cliche, and by and large no one complains about them not representing a suitable, truthful, or politically/socially correct enough image. I don't impose social politics on something as silly as a daytime drama. I want the characters to be campy, gluttonous, salacious, flawed and/or evil. Quite frankly, I don't need and am not bent on proper examples, political correctness or a rainbow coalition.

[Paul Raven]

Doug Marland did introduce an American Indian character on the show and I think her story dealt in some way with land rights.I hope someone who watched the show closely will remember.I'm thinking the character(or actress's) name was Leslie.I think there was some connection to Lyla and Cal.

[Paul Raven]

Now that I've done some research,the actress/character I'm referring to is Kimberly Norris as Simone Bordeau

[Sindacco]

[miajere]

[DRW50]

If it was that much of a burden for soap producers to bring in black characters, if viewers were that unforgiving, then Y&R never would have had any success with black characters. Malcolm and Dru and Neil and Olivia could have all been dismissed as stereotypes. Instead, they were very popular with black viewers, as well as a lot of white viewers, for long periods of time.

I don't believe that REG's fanbase caused her demise. I think she wanted more money than the show was willing to provide.

It's always easy to justify the cowardice of soap producers by saying they just don't have any choice because the soap fans will never give them a chance.

I would only believe that if minority characters had NEVER fit in on soaps. Instead, they did fit in, only to be systematically shunned over the last 10-15 years, along with people over 40, and strong female characters.

Besides, it's not like there aren't very vocal, always unhappy fan bases for white actors and couples.

[SFK]

I'm sorry, but with two middle aged white men as the brains behind HBO's The Corner and The Wire, these soap folks have no excuse. Along with a predominantly white team behind the scenes, David Simon and Ed Burns produced shows praised by black audiences for their gritty authenticity. It's been said that the only unrealistic thing about the Baltimore we see in The Wire is the fact that everybody isn't watching The Wire. But these men worked in the trenches, they lived the life they wrote about in their shows. They're not black men from Baltimore, but they were cops, reporters, community activists, and what they didn't know, they reached out and found out. And did I mention that white people just LOVE this show? It's not like white viewers aren't interested in people who don't look like them. It's definitely a show for who Marlena/Connie would call "thinking fans", and wouldn't we all like to think again? But I guess nobody in soaps knows black people? Nobody in soaps wants to hire people who know black people? Nobody in soaps wants to hire black people? I mean what is REALLY going on here? Point blank, if they were interested, it would be reflected on screen. They simply do not care, and until I'm proven wrong by my TV screen, I won't be convinced otherwise.

I use black people as my example here, but you could switch "black" out for any other marginal group. I wonder if networks are afraid of hiring black EPs and HWs, afraid that they'll "blackwash" their daytime lineups. I mean, look at the producing/writing team over at One Life, Fish/Kyle/Nick ain't no coincidence folks. HELLO?

[Vee]

The problem with Evangeline was they almost immediately strayed from what the character was introduced as - she came on defending Mitch Laurence and dating RJ, and I had high hopes for her. But as ACEM said, she was quickly made into the stock black soap character who didn't have much personality (leading to her turning on RJ) so as not to offend white execs. And while her fanbase liked to bring Mitch up later on to claim she was "full of different facets," you could never dare suggest to them that this made her a morally questionable person...you know, like everyone else on a soap opera?

From there it was a long downhill slope watching her, at least for me. Yes, she had frontburner story and was paired interracially, and that's to be commended on a surface level, but the character was so milquetoast and the writers seemed to doggedly refuse to give her any layers beyond "prom queen," even when Goldsberry complained about the character's behavior. No matter who the character is, fans will turn on them if they are overexposed or too perfect. Evangeline was both, at least IMO. She always had to be good, right, the most desirable, and that is a death sentence for story. At the time, it was like a soap other than Y&R had finally realized how to put a character of color on the frontburner, but they'd picked the wrong one and/or neutered her to make up for it. There was a world of difference between an Evangeline and a Drucilla. Eva simply does not compare. Say what you will about Rachel Gannon, but she has layers and history, good and bad - she even killed someone and did time. That's drama up the wazoo and this time, OLTL has not shied away from it. It doesn't surprise me Van has not returned, because it's like, what do you write for Miss America? She's not the first soap princess to suddenly find herself out of favor when the writing changes. See: Christine on Y&R, Courtney on GH, etc etc.

[MoTheGreat]

I don't think it was about money she was outshining al lthe white actress they wanted to showcvase like Natalie, Blair, & Jessica. & they wanted to keep her in a dead end relationship with Cris. I still couldn't believe they put her there.