This morning I took my car in for inspection, as I sat and waited for everything to be completed The Maury Povich Show came on. Thankfully, this wasn't a women of color asking Maury to help her test the 10th man who might be her baby's father. However, it was equally disconcerting when a young black woman in the first segment proceed to scream, prance around and get bent out of shape over the prospect of her boyfriend cheating on her with another woman (which she described in graphic detail). Not only was the woman 2 months pregnant with the man's child, but her mother's witnessed the said event in her own home. After the lie dectector revealed that he had cheated over 50 times, the only brother in the room turned to me and said 'is this for real?' My answer: I hope not. Word has leaked out that both Jerry Springer and Maury Povich simply want 'good television' so they coax guests to perform in such ridiculous ways. If that's true, all we can do is question what folks will do to get them 15 minutes of fame. But it is frightening to think that this is their lives.
This made me consider the choices we have of black women in daytime. First, we have this stereotyped victim/confrontational witch, then there is Sherri Shepherd and Whoopi Goldberg on The View. All I can do is shake my head every time I see a clip where Sherri opens her mouth and well, Whoopi sometimes just puts her head down in shame. Can you blame her? Oprah, of course, is in a league of her own and that comes with its own set of haters. One of today's most watched videos on You Tube is taking shots of 'The Church that Oprah Built.' This, of course, is ridiculous but that doesn't stop people from believing the hype. (It's amazing what taking things out of context can do...note the persecution of Reverend Jeremiah Wright).
Then there are the daytime dramas. We all watched them back in the day but I must admit that these days they serve as benign backdrop after a stressed-out day at work. You already know that storylines take forever to progress so you really don't have to pay attention. An attempt at watching one helps me zone out that much quicker and quite frankly I prefer them to the all-reality-all-the-time alternative available. But a strange thing has happened to daytime dramas since I stopped watching them back in the day. All the black folks have all but disappeared. Most show has one core family, or a part of one, who may get a nibble of a story but romance, which is what the genre is built upon, simply doesn't exist—especially if its between a black man and woman. Case in point: Victoria Rowell got the heck out of dodge when they tried to make her a crazy black woman on The Young and The Restless.
That is why I have been watching with great interest the return of Darnell Williams and Debbi Morgan on All My Children. Sure, they were the first black supercouple in daytime (which means white folks like them too). But I must admit that I find it strange that ABC executives had to revisit a storyline that was 20 years old to bring back some color to daytime drama. Debbi Morgan agreed to return if the powers that be steered clear of non-sensical storylines, let's see if they can live up to that promise six months from now. But I guess it would be too much to ask for her to have a black woman as a friend—they'd actually have to send a casting call out because there are no others. But at least with these two there is a representation of black love, although it is fictional, these actors make you think it does exist. Let's hope that they can help reverse the black-out of daytime.
But I can't end on such a lofty note because I've noticed something else: Debbi Morgan has more hairstyle changes in a week than anyone else. A pretty great feat when it takes days for 24 hours to elapse. But even in peril, Debbi has been perfectly coifed in braids, twists and curly 'fro. Makes me smile and wonder what happened to the black women behind the scenes.
