Black Soap Opera Premieres In New Era Of DEI Attack

By Rosaland Tyler
Associate Editor
New Journal and Guide

A prominent but fictional Black family in Maryland debuted in a new soap opera on CBS on Monday, Feb. 24, in an era when multiple DEI lawsuits are being filed in the state of Maryland and nationwide, in an effort to mitigate the harsh anti-DEI executive orders that President Donald Trump signed when he assumed office on Jan. 20.

“Beyond the Gates” is an hour-long soap that airs weekdays at 2 p.m. Executive Producer Michele Val Jean and Sheila Ducksworth, president of CBS Studios/NAACP Venture, (which works to represent African-Americans on screen) – are in Atlanta filming the soap that you can also catch on Paramount’s streaming service.

It follows the prestigious, multigenerational Dupree family and their well-connected lives in Fairmont Crest, which is a fictional affluent Maryland suburb located near Washington, D.C.

While some may call the family DEI hires because they live in a neighborhood that is home to mansions, swimming pools, luxury cars and designer clothes, others may recall that the term DEI surfaced when multiple companies voluntarily launched diversity, equity and inclusion programs after a viral video showed an unarmed Black man, George Floyd, being suffocated to death by an armed, white police officer.

Former Officer Derek Chauvin is shown calmly kneeling one knee on Floyd’s neck for almost 10 minutes on May 25, 2020 in Minneapolis. Floyd was handcuffed and lying face down on the street, during an arrest made with three other officers, calling out “I can’t breathe,” until he stopped breathing at all.

Chauvin was convicted in court on April 20, 2021 and received a 21-year prison sentence.

Soon, multiple corporations and states voluntarily launched DEI programs, as a way to foster a more diverse, equitable, inclusive  and accessible workforce representing all Americans, which the Trump administration is now ridiculing, mocking and has targeted for closure.

To many Blacks, the new daytime soap may be simply a sign of upward mobility as it enters an already-crowded entertainment market aimed at Black consumers. It’s important to point out that the new Black soap comes on the heels of the nation’s only pioneering but now defunct Black soap,  “Generations,” which aired on NBC in 1989 and ended in 1991 after just 13 months on air, according to Entertainment Weekly.

“These stories have never been told in this genre,” said the lead actor Clifton Davis, age 80, who plays the role of activist and former politician Vernon Dupree. “We’re history-making.” The soap’s creators “are not just there because of some DEI … they are there because they earned it. They are there because they are good and they are capable of doing a good job.”

Val Jean, the soap’s executive producer, recently told PEOPLE, “You certainly have not seen these characters before on daytime [television]. They are a really close-knit, accomplished Black family, and they’re messy as hell. It’s not like they’re perfect.

“They shove, stay mad and don’t speak to each other but when someone in the family is in trouble, they rally.

“That’s the foundation of the show. That’s the foundation of most soap operas, all of the drama, but it’s gotta be rooted in something. And this show is rooted in family,” Val Jean said.

Expect secrets and scandals to unfold in this fictional Black upscale Maryland neighborhood, “Beyond the Gates,” which aims to “reflect the greatness and the brilliance of Black culture in America,” according to news reports, is featuring a multi-generational cast that includes White, Asian and Latinx actors as well as characters with varied sexual identities.

The point is the CBS soap, “Beyond the Gates,” is premiering in an era when there seems to be an intentional effort to ban anything that does not champion white values, philosophies, and white values.

Viewers can expect it (the soap opera) to encompass “everything,” Ducksworth told PEOPLE in a recent interview. A trailer tease said, “Your family rules this community. How awesome is that?” The new soap salutes an audience that has been traditionally underserved, according to news reports.