Interracial relationships in soaps

[DRW50]

This isn't so much a thread about why daytime generally stopped writing for interracial relationships, as we can probably all guess the answer to that, but I wondered if you thought that there is still a market to explore interracial relationships on soaps. I know that you are more likely to hear "Oh, well most people accept that now, it's not a big deal" (even if this isn't exactly true) but I think there's still an interest in telling a story about these dynamics, as when I go on Youtube there are channels mainly devoted to well-written and acted soap stories involving this subject.

Do you think that if a soap tried to tell a story today about opposition to an interracial relationship, especially if its close to many of the 90s stories involving this issue, it would seem too dated? Since most of those involved black women and white men, should they talk more about a black man and a white woman, or do you think that this is something which is always going to be half-heartedly done (like the Neil/Ashley stuff on Y&R recently)?

Are there any particular interracial relationships you thought were strong and wanted to see more of?

I was mostly inspired to ask this because I started watching some of the Jessica/Duncan clips, most of which I couldn't remember. Tamara and Michael Swan, especially Tamara, were superb, and Doug Marland managed to honestly discuss opposition to black/white relationships without making anyone seem like a cartoon. I actually liked Shannon and was happy to see her return, but even then I knew that using her to break up Jessica and Duncan was a mistake, especially since they managed to pretty much destroy most of the characters involved.

[DRW50]

This is a clip where Jessica's brother Lamar tears into her over dating a white man and she fights back. Tamara Tunie is just unbelievable.

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[applcin]

RJ Gannon on OLTL had a number of relationships with white women but they were rarely focused on or they were short-lived. He and Lindsay had a fairly long relationship, mostly off-camera, and then she got the hots for Bo again. I think there was a lot of wasted potential there, especially because they were two very flawed people who, nevertheless, accepted each other's flaws.

[marceline]

There is a market but not on the current soaps. If soaps were like every other form of entertainment and allowed shows to die when they were no longer viable and be replaced by new ones then shows wouldn't have to serve the sensibilities of people who've been watching for 20, 30, 40 years and insist on adhering to 20, 30, 40 year old mores. Look at primetime and cable. They manage to feature interracial pairings of all kinds without being felled by hate mail from bigots. Daytime not only rewards bigots, it caters to them.

[Cheap21]

I dont get why there needs to be a "market" for them. Why cant they just be?

[Faulkner]

Tamara Tunie just rocks. There were some false, preachy notes in that dialogue but she sold it.

I think some might argue that soaps have gone too far in "embracing" interracial relationships, using them as a convenient excuse to not portray black life and love on soaps. When soaps portray interracial love, they are almost always white male/black female (even though they are relatively rare IRL), and they almost always come at the expense of a black male character's dignity.

Personally, I thought Chloe and Devon had loads of chemistry on Y&R, but the show was more interested in Chilly.

[Ann_SS]

My favorite interracial relationship ever was Jamal and Ali, Port Charles. Damn TPTB for breaking them up and putting her with Rafe and then Jack. Jamal and Ali were a real couple on a soap which is why them were probably doomed. I loved them and have fond memories of how much they loved each other. Too bad there aren't a lot, of if any clips of them on YT.

Of course, Frankie and Madison is the couple that should get a shot, but AMC has abandoned them to sacrifice her on Ryan's altar.

[DRW50]

And then there was his relationship with Keri's mother who'd had a one-night stand with Antonio. Not a great story.

It's too bad they never did more with any of this. They used to talk about his past with Nora but that also went nowhere.

I liked them a lot too. I think there was an episode where they were riding on a motorcycle with some love song playing in the background (or was that someone else). Putting her with Rafe destroyed her character. And poor Kiko has been put in worthless roles ever since, at least in daytime.

[DeeeDee]

SO. MUCH. HATE.

Even now.

That ruined Brian Gaskill for me.

[Cheap21]

I cant think of any characters on soaps now that Id want to see in an interacial relationship. I dont want TPTB to do one just for the sake of doing one. I want the charaters to actually connect and make sense instead of it being some plot driven pairing.

Not really. Daytime has had plenty of white/hispanic and black/hispanic relationships (the only 3 prevalent races on soaps). And there have been quite a few black male/white female

[Vee]

IMO it's a thorny issue in a lot of ways. On either end of the spectrum, daytime finds a way to [!@#$%^&*] characters of color. I think that for the past ten or fifteen years, almost any interracial relationship - or at least, any black/white relationship on soaps - has depended on the character of color being extremely bland and "non-threatening" to the audience, giving them very little actual personality, leaving that mostly to the white character, and generally they are only together because they are mid-level or backburner characters at best - as R.J. and Lindsay were when they finally got together. So that's a problem. Yet at the other end of the equation, most times a show pairs black characters together, it is simply a way to put them in a corner and leave them there.

In a perfect world we'd have equally vibrant relationships and major stories both for interracial couples and for all-black couples, or Latino or Asian or whatever. But these days, more than ever, daytime seems to have absolutely no idea how to handle minorities of any stripe.

[DeeeDee]

[DRW50]

It's interesting that 1994 was around the time that three popular (as far as I know) interracial couples - Kevin/Rachel, Tom/Livia, Jessica/Ducan - were split up or backburnered during 1994, while Gilly/Alan-Michael, a potentially wonderful couple, were stalled. This was also the time that the brakes were slammed on AW's Felicia/Marshall. I wonder if something specific happened behind the scenes at this time. I know I'm not being fair to AMC, as Tom and Livia still had story and it was other stuff which caused their exits (I know Tonya Pinkins was on Broadway and then Richard Shoberg was fired), but it's a shame AMC didn't really ever make the effort again. Noah/Julia were popular but the writing for them became just awful around the time the show sacrificed Taylor. After that the show seemed to start having a lot of problems with doing anything with their black cast.

I remember when GL brought in the Boudreaux family, which had potential, but not only did Rick and Mel get together way too fast, I thought that the show was somewhat condescending in how they treated her family (I think it was mainly her brother Remy) and their objections to her marrying an older, white man with a lot of baggage.

[bellcurve]

+1's y'all.

[Vee]

Usually I can follow the hieroglyphic JPEGs but now I am at a loss. I don't even get the peanuts. Is that a good glyph or a bad glyph?