Black Character Portrayals in Soaps Today

[VirginiaHamilton]

@ Academy-Award winner Lexi Ainsworth. I had no problem with the girl, but those stans were hilariously delusional in their belief that she was Jonathan Jackson/Kimberly McCullough-levels of greatness. Not that Lindsey Morgan is any better or worse (to me, at least), but they need to stop acting as if she is Christel Khalil-levels of horrible.

That said, I doubt that the backlash against Lindsey Morgan would be as harsh if she were an actress that was the product of two white parents. The fact that many said that she was 'too dark' to play Sonny/Alexis' daughter pretty much confirms what I'd long thought of those Lexi/Ethina stans.

As for AI as Maya, while I'll agree that being saddled with that greasy-assed retcon that should've never existed (as played by a no-talent actor that truly wasn't worth all the online hype in the first place) - especially since she had plenty more chemistry with Johnny and Lucky - what ultimately did her in was that she posed a threat to certain folks who'd rather see the likes of Epiphany pop up once in a blue moon to sass it up than a beautiful, educated, classy, appealing, and non-stereotypical Black female character have the heart of their white knight (even one as grimy as Ethan) in the palm of her hand.

[VirginiaHamilton]

Oh, I was thrilled (and still am) that she (as well as Tika Sumpter) left the daytime plantation for mainstream projects. What I'm not thrilled about is that:

a. GH didn't give two shits about the Maya character enough to recast in the wake of AI's departure - something that they could've easily done and would have done if Maya were a white character (since Lord knows GH doesn't have enough of those).

b. she was written out as having cheated on him out of nowhere with some random Black chiropractor (despite more appealing he was her bum of a husband) in order to prop the never-was couple that was Ethina.

While I'm thankful that I didn't have to witness a grown 20-something woman battle it out (and lose, since that's the way ABCD soaps roll) with a Romper Room tot for the affections of a jobless greaseball of a loser, I don't think that what aired was any better.

[VirginiaHamilton]

Half-black? That's a new one.

If Adela were to come back from the dead, those fools would be clamoring for Cameron Diaz to play her.

[DeeeDee]

As do Black actors.

[Wales2004]

High on the Romper Room scale has to be OLTL's placement of Evangeline with scruffy John McBain and his shadow in distress Natalie. That was like 30 something professional visiting the playground to cat fight with a high school girl over ath 40 something dirty looking detective. Even if some didn't like the character Evangeline or REG, the whole thing should have seemed unbelievably ridiculous and an insult to anyone with a functioning brain.

[Cheap21]

I had no problem with this bc I couldnt stand Eva and thought she played herself when she cheated on RJ with John and then turned things around to make RJ look like the villian bc she was "coming up" moving on to John. She was delusional! She got her jus desserts when John ended up humiliating her to move on to the next chick

[Wales2004]

'Got it but I am talking about the nonsensical writing. If we were talking about real people and this sort of thing happened then you get what you put out. But I am talking about terrible writing here. Now I am no RJ fan but the writing for him in the Kerry/Antomio relationship was most ridiculous when they had him at the college supposedly being inconspicuous when I couldn't see anything inconspicuous about him. And they could have written that whole end to his relationship with Evangeline a whole lot differently instead of being heavy handed with the super bad RJ versus protector McBain.

This is just another example of ABC's b/w interracial relationships where the black woman has to lose to the white woman to restore order to the universe but take it down a notch to Romper Room level and let her lose to a child. They made a statement about RJ being no good and there was no Hank left for balance. Kerry became a psycho for the cause and Evangeline was reduced to shrivel.

No matter how much I might dislike a character or love another or dislike the writing, I am never going to support writing a woman in such a humiliating way for the sake of whatever payback I might think said character has coming because she had the misfortune of being saddled with stupid writing. Her versus Blair made a whole lot more sense in terms of writing for grown up women.

[SFK]

This is why I find the CK situation, among other things, troublesome and upsetting. Of all the young blacktresses in Hollywood who undoubtedly read for that role, Y&R was happiest with their Lily being in the form of CK. Physically, for starters, DS was the better choice. What really grinds my gears is when we get into this business about Lily coming up in Parisian boarding schools ergo Valley Girl is right on the money, and black people come in all shades and VR and KSJ are biracial (the ACTORS mind you, not their characters, and look at VR's real-life daughter!) so it's perfectly acceptable that Lily is on the lighter side.

Folks, these are the exceptions in life that the industry is banking on. Banking on these exceptions, and your acceptance of them, so they can pimp their "comfortable" depiction of blacks as the norm. And it pisses me off when people dismiss the fact that this sort of thing goes on. This is an industry that filled the role of Frankie Hubbard with Jason freaking Olive. I am not only in disagreement with that casting decision, I am offended by it. Jamal Cudahy, sure, the son of Debbi Morgan and Darnell Williams? Not at gun point. Next people will be defending Wentworth Miller as Walter Lee Younger.

This is an industry that threw away an asian character's freaking RACE and plugged a southern blonde in the role like it was all copacetic. Later regimes would joke about it, and I shared in on the laughs, but really, it's not funny. I'll never forget reading a comment on a message board defending KDP's casting, saying that MK's Blair needed to speak Japanese for the Jaba City s/l and now that it was over, she didn't need to be Japanese anymore. I'd be equally offended if after Carla Gray's initial s/l was over and they decided to recast the role with a Petronia Paley for example.

[xtr]

I would say Angie/Jesse got treated a lot better than a lot of black characters on soaps have gotten treated. And I think that a lot of that had to due with the fact that the writers actually loved/liked their characters. I honestly believe B&E did care about the Hubbards and that's why they gave them favorable writing. (One of the very few things B&E did right IMO.) The other writers that came after B&E may not have cared for the Hubbards quite as much but I think in general that they liked them. The stories that were given to them weren't always good, but I do get the sense that the writers in general liked them. And I did like a lot of the family scenes that we got of them. I also agree that the writing for them could have been a lot worse. Especially when you see what other black characters on soaps get. I wish that the character of Frankie would have gotten treated a lot of better. I really enjoyed Cornelius's version of Frankie and I think that the writers could have done so much more with him than they did. He was a young handsome,smart, strong,character who had a lot of potential. He was the type of character that could have enriched the show, but the writers didn't really do much with him. They tried to write a little for him, here and there, but it wasn't enough.

I agree. I think that could make a significant difference in how black characters are being written for in soaps.

I am seeing this not only on soaps but with movies/television shows as well. (Though tv shows and movies in particular are a bit better with their treatment of black characters). But I think that a lot of black actors/characters are still getting table scraps and it's unfortunate.

[Money]

Evangeline was wrong for cheating on RJ but when did she ever act like she was "coming up" being with John? She was an ivy league educated lawyer who could have done better than both the town criminal and the washbeat cop. You will get no arguments from me that the writing to villify RJ to prop Mcbain was stupid but even worse was the tokenism involved in the triangle with Natalie. On what planet would any woman, least of all an ivy league black one put up with John's bullshit over a barmaid who thought she was the Llanview brawler. The way the wrote Evangeline when Natalie kept showing her nothing but barely concealed contempt as she continued to take the high road to perpetuate that insipid triangle was insane. I needed vodka shots everytime they had that woman (with absolutely everything going for her) feel insecure over that twit because she couldn't get her man to say he loved her. That story had Evangeline "knowing he place" written all over it.

[Cheap21]

I thought it was more about her atittude and her contempt for town pariah former gangster RJ to "moving up" to respected former FBI agent John as she switched mens. She suddently acted as if she was too good for RJ, yet John was the perfect guy who was the best fit for her. It didnt help matters that RJ was black and John, white. She was a stank bitch when it came to how this all went down

[frequentsoapfan]

I remember on DAYS how original Arianna, Felisha Terrell who I beleive is half black/white was fired so Hartley could step into the role. Neither were hispanic but at least Terrell fit the role better.

[Cheap21]

Lindsay has a very exotic look and I completely buy her being hispanic in the roles she is cast in

[MoTheGreat]

Even though I'm hard on CK playing a full black character, She just seem uncomfortable in a fully black role especially questing not to have black family time that much.

I believe CK would have done better with being a biracial child.

I saw her in a Latin movie bleaching her skin because she was darker then the rest of her family. For some reason she fit that role better then she ever did a full black character.

[Wales2004]

I usually see the Kerry Washington blurp next to the mention of Teresa Graves. Christie Love may just be the type of kick butt character some people would like to see.

What's changed? People watched television at one point and moved on without a tremendous amount of discussion about characterization. Then the whole issue of stereotyping etc, came along and it's way too easy to claim that no one is going to be satisfied because this group wants this and the other wants the opposite. There's this odd belief that opposites cannot co-exist in the television universe because there's apparently only one way to depict a character. When the Tyler Perry supporters and the Spike Lee supporters figure out that they can both have a share of the silver screen, things will be smoother for them.

I can agree with almost everyone about something because lots of things make sense and there isn't one way to go about it. There should be a wide range of characterizations onscreen because people are that different. It's different objectives and goals that keep some people stuck and unable to accept that no one way has to be the right way.

Maybe when people stop worrying so much about what other people think of the characters they see on television being representative of them in a negative way and accept that some people are like them and others are not and they don't need to carry the burden of some character around with them in their daily lives, it might get easier to accept a sassy or a timid character onscreen without any hoopla.

I don't have a problem seeing a woman set her husband's clothes on fire in his car on t.v. but why should that be any more acceptable as a genuine characterization than a woman passively taking rubbish from a man as if that is much more unlikely to happen in real life?