Racism and racial representation on soaps

[Faulkner]

Speaking of KHC, saw this on his IG feed and it sort of brings this thread full circle:

 

 

I started watching a 1980 episode of GH, which featured two black characters as talk-to tokens. I see that @DRW50 posted a thread on these characters, Bryan and Claudia, who lived in Port Charles for YEARS and never had real stories:

 

Clip:

 

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[titan1978]

@Vee, I also loved Antonio’s first run on the show, and really thought he and Andy were a great couple.  Sexy doesn’t even begin to cover how hot that period of time was with him on the show.  He was also a fantastic actor.

[Chris B]

@mikelyons I don’t know how I missed it, but I kept seeing reference to your story and went back to read it. Thank you for sharing that! Based on everything we know, we KNOW things are bad. That isn’t a question, but what I always wonder is how much worse the things we DONT know are. Victoria Rowell if you notice is rarely speaking about herself directly, but things that would impact other actors and also the crew. What you gave us is a glimpse at what things are like behind the scenes for black crew members. That is something we have very little knowledge of so I am thankful for that! 
 

People  have their opinions about him, but it made me think of Jamey Giddeons who mentioned how he tried to get jobs on all the soaps and was turned down for any kind of writing position, but then he ended up with a show on OWN. It’s amazing that a major, bankable producer would get him a primetime show, yet he would’ve been happy on the writing staff of a daytime soap and he couldn’t even get that. We know why. I’m glad that like him you have found success and a career you enjoy outside of soaps. 
 

I know CBS is doing this diversity mandate for behind the scenes, but you can’t convince me that will include their soaps. I just don’t know what it will take to change things, but I don’t see things changing in front of or behind the scenes. 

[David_Vickers]

   This is how a lot of new castmembers get leaked.  DAYS castmembers posing pics with other actors, etc. Hopefully this will turn out to be true that Krista Tesreau is the new Jennifer Horton Deveraux and Melissa Reeves is OUT!

[BetterForgotten]

 

[WebberFan]

I was watching old GH clips today and Gia popped up. I'd forgotten how they put Marisa Ramirez in braids and told us she was Black.

[Faulkner]

It’s crazy the things soaps have gotten away with. And neither Lindsay (Korman) Hartley nor Galen Gering are Latino, yet they’ve played Latino characters on both Passions and DAYS. (Lindsay also played Latina on AMC.)

 

At least Jordi Vilasuso and Camila Banus are Cuban-American.

[cassadine1991]

I thought Galen’s mom was Spanish?

[Faulkner]

She is Spanish, but from Spain (She’s Basque). Not Latin American. 
 

There’s an odd quote attributed to him on his IMDB profile. I can’t find the source:

 

[victoria foxton]

Galen's mother is a Spaniard of Basque descent. So close but no cigar. 

Edited July 26, 2020 by victoria foxton

[ReddFoxx]

All of the Lopez-Fitzgeralds were played by non-Hispanic actors except for Paloma and the second Miguel.

 

Cord and Maria on OLTL were portrayed by people who were not Latino either. John Loprieno is Italian and Barbara Luna is of a variety of European ethnicity and Filipino.

[victoria foxton]

I always  assumed John and Barbara were Hispanic. Since they both look so mestizo. 

[DramatistDreamer]

Beloveds, I've been to Latin America and I've been to Spain and Spain is not even close to Latino. Spain is a European country. Full stop.  If you go towards Basque country, you will find more similarities between Basque language and culture with France than you would ever have between Basques and Cubans or Puerto Ricans or Salvadorans.

Please, let's not conflate and confuse things.

[ReddFoxx]

That's a really good point. I've seen some people call Latino or Hispanic people Spanish and it is irritating.

[Faulkner]

Amen to Anne-Marie Johnson’s comments. And again, will these commitments apply to their daytime lineups, or are the soap writing teams simply flying under the radar due to apathy?