The Bold and the Beautiful - MESSAGE BOARDS

There has been a lot of African Americans on the Young and the Restless. The original black actress was Mamie, John's housekeeper who later retired and was no longer the housekeeper. Through her, viewers were introduced to the Barber girls, her nieces(Drucilla and Olivia), one of whom was a doctor. They became one of Y&R's biggest story lines, and interacted with Malcom and Neil Winters so there were a total of five on the show at the time. Back then though, there was very little, if any romance between the races. It was still a little bit taboo to pair interracial couples even though long before on Star Trek they had the first interracial kiss on TV. The first Y&R black actors/actresses were paired with each other for the most part. There were flirtations such as Malcolm with Victoria or Phyllis, but it never went beyond that at the time. However, I am glad to see Lily on the Young and the Restless paired with Jill's son. The Young and the Restless still has the the Winters story line on the show. Recently they had at least six African Americans on Y&R conected with the Winters family. Also, for those who don't remember, Jack has an Amerasian son who went back to Viet Nam, I think. I remember liking his cool GQ look long hair back then. Also, Y&R introduced Rafe, who is now a lawyer and gay, related to the hispanic housekeeper of Victor Newman.
The problem with the Bold and the Beautiful is that it is only 30 minutes. That makes it hard for the show to include more families. They already have characters not seen for weeks when other story lines develop. Pam, Clark, Thorne, and Felicia are little more than extras. They had the first major inclusion of Hispanic actors on daytime tv. Furthermore, I see it as a sign of progress that color is not important in determining who gets paired in a romantic relationship anymore as when the Donna, Marcus and Justin story line has introduced, and I hear they are bringing a young African American girl on the show. Now if only the B&B can go to an hour to fullly develop the characters.

That is not what you would call A LOT. That is a few. And yes at first there was no interracial dating. But now, they would rather pair them up with white people. Lily has yet to date a black man. She had Kevin, then Daniel, Cane, and Billy. And they did pair Maime with John. That was horrible!!!!!!!!!!
Olivia had an affair with Brad when he was married to her best friend Ashley. They had Damon, who was with Phyliss.

In relation to the this country's percentage of African American population that is a lot. Wisconsin, where the Y&R is set, does not have a large black population except for maybe Milwaukee. As of the latest census, African Americans make up 13.5% of the total population. That is slightly more than one in ten people. Many people of both black and white heritage are considered black by out dated attitudes when they are actually biracial or multiracial. However, the Bold and the Beautiful needs a more balanced representation of the population, and I am glad they are doing it. I hope to see many more African Americans on the show; Los Angeles has high a African American population and it should reflect it, and there are African Americans in Beverly Hills too. It's ironic that the show set in Wisconsin had the higher percentage.