They prefer their beer yellow and their foreigners dead and their soap operas plain

Call it trash. Call it worthless.

Regardless of what you call it, the contemporary soap opera is impacting America.

Millions of people tune in to their favorite daytime dramas every day looking for a glimpse into intimacy. Whether it’s “All My Children” or “Days of Our Lives,” TV viewers watch soaps expecting a comprehensive, realistic perspective that provides a genuine representation of what love looks like. Instead, they are treated to an image that is blanched — characters that are mainly white and any interaction that takes place between other races has been whitewashed.

Example: a 1960s storyline for “One Life to Live” showed romance between a white doctor and his black housekeeper’s daughter. Aside from being void of any intimacy, the interracial twist was irrelevant because the black woman passed as white — both in and outside of the storyline.

Another soap opera, “Love is a Many Splendored Thing,” revolved around an interracial romance and, due to audience disapproval, the show was cancelled after only a few months. Although a lot of social progress has been made since the 1960s, obviously the corporate world hasn’t changed a bit. Why?

In a corporate system, that which proves to be commercially viable sets the rules for how the system runs. The first rule: do not upset the consumer. Would soap opera consumers be upset by an interracial couple nowadays? Corporate soap producer says maybe, but it’s not worth the risk.

Let’s just forget social progression. We should probably just stick to the formula; it’s best to not bite the hand that feeds.

If corporate America isn’t ready for another paradigm, well, just leave it where it is, right?

Wrong. There is a desperate need to break this mold and better reflect reality, specifically in the United States. Unfortunately, however, there is no possible way to change it. As long as this nation allows TV to cultivate our sociological unmentionables, it’ll have to settle for the same old story. Regardless of progress, TV will stay in black and white.

And so will the U.S. This country is full of corporate-minded fiends. They operate by rearranging old clichés and applying them to the present times, rather than thinking freely and redefining negativity. They prefer the same old story; they rely on nostalgia. They hop on bandwagons. Worst of all, they categorize people and, in turn, categorize themselves.

Regarding interracial relationships, they’re the ones who opt for them solely out of stereotyping and rebellion.

Perhaps it’s this attitude that’s ruining it for everyone. Corporate culture has commercialized relationships, making them commodities and assets. Like the soaps, people wonder what feedback they’ll get with their new boyfriends/girlfriends.

So maybe it’s not the poor soap opera producers’ fault — it’s the American audiences. After all, half of them watch George Bush and see a superhero. They prefer their beer yellow and their foreigners dead and their soap operas plain. Maybe it’s time the U.S. stopped relying on TV as its main source for reality since no shows have the chutzpa to show reality.

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