Victoria's Restless For Soap Diversity

I had the pleasure of meeting Victoria Rowell during my airline days and watching her on one of my fave soap the Young And The Restless.

Now in conjunction with the Urban League's Marc Morial and Dr. Cornel West,  Rowell is working tirelessly on a mission to fight the decline in diversity in the daytime television world in front of and behind the cameras.

She played Drucilla Winters on the most watched soap amongst African-American viewers, but is distressed about what she calls 'Soap Opera Apartheid'

The author of Secrets of a Soap Opera Diva was getting major pushback from people in that world as well.

“I was proactive around closing the chasm at the lack of diversity behind the lens as well in front of the lens. There is tremendous pushback behind the lens not to bring me back,“ Rowell said during an interview back in August .  “Because I will put in play what has now disappeared. In 38 years, there has never been one Black writer, producer or director and it goes on and on. We have no Black hair or makeup [person].”

She's got a point.  Currently General Hospital's Michele Val Jean and One Life to Live's Aida Croal are the only African American writers in daytime television.  Note they are both with ABC soaps.

Y&R , CBS and its parent company Sony of course denied the soap opera apartheid exists and defensively pointed to the five African descended actors and the characters they play on the show.   But Kristoff St. John, Darius McCrary, Tonya Lee Williams, Tatyana Ali and Julia Pace Mitchell are on so infrequently if you blink you'll miss them.  

I got so tired of not seeing them on a regular basis I quit watching the show and started watching All My Children again since they brought Darnell Williams and Debbi Morgan back in 2008 and have more African-American characters on it again with meaningful storylines .

Rowell's campaign has begun to get results in the face of growing pissivity over the situation with African American soap opera fans, increased media attention and escalating boycott threats.  The Young and the Restless hired their first African-American writer in the history of the show in Susan Dansby.  


The veteran soap writer was given a six week deal that will start in February.  Rowell and the Urban League are pushing for that to be extended far longer than that considering Dansby's distinguished track record in the soap world.

But as Victoria said in the upcoming February 1 Soap Opera Digest issue that she will be the cover girl for:  


"I do not enjoy having to change lines to create an authenticity for the black family."

Nor should she have to.  

I Think, Therefore I...

Depends on the person.

To some, me thinking about and articulating those thoughts on the electronic pages of TransGriot, on mine or other people's blogs across the blogosphere or Facebook is a good thing.

To others, it scares the crap out of them because it runs counter to their narrow points of view.

To another group they absolutely hate the fact that my thought processes not only don't neatly line up with theirs, but I'm bold enough to write it down and say it as well and it royally pisses them off.

To another group of people it's the fact that an African descended person has the temerity and willingness to tell it like it T-I-S makes them go apoplectic.

And yes, I'm proud to be an intelligent, thinking African descended woman of trans experience.   I love this electronic platform I have to articulate my thoughts and bring the noise and the funk of my culture.

I'm proud to be able to drive home the point that African American transpeople exist and have a reasoned voice to add to the debate about what makes our part of the diverse mosaic of human life as interesting as it is.

And no, I'm not going to let you or the blogosphere forget that I see things through a chocolate flavored prism, and my voice about trans issues is just as valid and important as anyone else's out there.

I think, therefore I am

And as Parliament-Funkadelic has reminded us, it ain't illegal yet to think..

Survivor: College Station

Since coming agonizingly close to ending UConn's record women's collegiate basketball winning streak back on  November 16, the Baylor Lady Bears have won 15 straight since that narrow 65-64 loss in Hartford

In the wake of Stanford beating the Huskies to end The Streak in December, the Lady Bears took over as the nation's Number one ranked NCAA women's basketball team.

This Lady Bear team is actually better than the Griner led squad that made it to the Women's Final Four last year in San Antonio with freshman gunners such as Odyssey Sims and Brooklyn Pope in the mix.

They took their unbeaten Big 12 conference record, winning streak and Number one ranking to a sold out Reed Arena to face the Number 6 nationally ranked Texas A&M Aggies and the Big 12's leading scorer in Danielle Adams.   Like the Lady Bears, the Aggies have only lost one game this year as well to then Number 3 ranked Duke.   They were on a 12 game win streak of their own and were 8-0 at home this year. 


It was the largest crowd for a women's basketball game this season at A&M and the assembled crowd at Reed Arena were treated to a first place showdown battle that went down to the final seconds.

The now 19-1 (6-0) Lady Bears prevailed 63-60 thanks to an Odyssey Sims jumper in the lane with 25 seconds left.   A steal on an A&M attempt to tie the game by Melissa Jones led to free throws that bumped the Baylor lead up to three points.

The Aggies had a chance to tie it, but Sydney Colson's 3-point attempt was short.  Baylor hustled to secure the rebound but couldn't corral it before it went out of bounds, giving Texas A&M one last chance to tie the game.   

Tyra White's desperation 3-point attempt at the buzzer was also short and Baylor finally could exhale and enjoy a hard fought win that kept them unbeaten in Big 12 conference play.

Odyssey Sims led all scorers with 25 points while Tyra White led all Texas A&M lady ballers with 18 points for the now 18-2 (6-1) Aggies. 

If this is any indicator of how close these teams are, the return matchup on Valentine's Day between Baylor and A&M in Waco's Ferrell Center should be a very interesting and hard fought game.