If you’ve been around for a while, you might know that I watch soap operas. Not just casually either–my DVR is set to Bold and the Beautiful. It’s a thoroughly horrible show, but of recycled story lines and romantic pairing that lasts about three episodes.

So I wasn’t holding out much hope that a love affair between a handsome, white and wealthy fashion mogul and a black girl with a prison record and from the wrong side of that tracks began to develop. “Rick and Maya,” the unlikely love story was thwarted by rich, blond and classist Caroline was an exercise in train wreck viewing.

Rick and Maya

Caroline, who also comes from a rich family, snubbed her nose at Maya, and straight up told that that she was just an experiment and that their bond was nothing more than a white man of stature sowing his wild oats prior to making a commitment to a pretty, blond “Becky.” Which in this case, was Caroline. Because once Rick and Maya broke up, Caroline stood front and center to graciously accept her role as the trophy. Never mind she worked real dirty behind the scenes to sabotage his relationship with a black girl she was convinced was beneath him. In real life, it’s pretty typical that pretty white women look at BW/WM pairings as slumming. “Why be with her when you can have meeeee?” White women have been elevated to goddess status to pretty much all men…right? Well…notsomuch anymore.

Black women and white men are experiencing spoiled-brat, entitled behaviors from the opposite gender. Both white men and black women are forging alliances that are long-lasting and fruitful. Marriage between a black woman and a white man has a lower chance of divorce that even WM/WM marriages.

Rick and on-camera wife, Caroline

So then, why is Hollywood still committed to pigeonholing antiquated stereotypes that black women are Jezebels/Mammys/Sapphires? I mean, these pairing ARE HAPPENING offline, so why the hesitancy to reflect cultural changes that are occurring in real life?

So after conniving Caroline schemed and plotted to get married to Rick, Maya, sidelined, began to be envious of the status and respect that comes with being “Mrs. Forrester.” So a few months into the marriage, Maya began to do her own scheming, and exposed a secret Caroline had that left her husband unable to forgive her and drive him back into the African America character, Maya.

Maya is ecstatic about winning her man back, and Rick delights in flaunting his new bed buddy in front of a jealous Caroline (they all work at the same fashion house in which Rick serves as CEO). But the patriarch of the company, who ultimately calls the shots, is disturbed by his son’s abandonment of his pretty white wife, whom he openly says is better suited for a man of his stature.  He goes so far as to demand that unless his son reunite with his more “suitable and acceptable” mate or face a de-throwing as CEO. Rick agrees outwardly but tells Maya his just doing it for show and he really wants to be with her but his big bad daddy won’t let him. Sounds eerily similar to IRL…

Maya isn’t happy about the charade, but goes along. You know, because us black chicks are happy tap dancing fools for any old half a man, regardless of race, amiright?  Rick tells her to be patient, that he’s only faking the reunion with his wife to save his career. Hold on, black women! Don’t give up on us yeeeetttt!!!

But what really took the cake today was Rick presenting his side hoe with a fancy apartment, in which will serve as Mistress Headquarters.

I mean, REALLY? In (nearly) 2015, folks are still hung up on seeing BW/WM in HEALTHY interracial relationships? I mean, as much as I know how some of you like Scandal, the Olivia Pope character mirrors the Maya character on Bold and the Beautiful. In both cases, the black women in relationships with rich and powerful men are presenting a dangerous cliche: The white man with lay up with you, but he won’t marry you. You can be the side chick, but never the main chick. That’s reserved for “Becky.”

Of course we know this is simply not what’s happening offline, where there’s hundreds of thousands of black women being the main Missus to white men, Hollywood is still clinging to the same old stereotypical tropes. We can keep kidding ourselves that both these characters are motivated by star-crossed love of powerful white men, but it’s just a dressed up version of a very old story. In what crazy world can homosexual pairings and public affection is being promoted and celebrated in Hollywood, but black women with white men are still begging for scraps?