ELIMINATE THE NEGATIVE, HE SAYS

Don’t talk to Billy Dee Williams about the longstanding reluctance of the TV networks to build dramatic series around black stars, or about the high failure rate when they do take the plunge. He doesn’t want to hear about it.

“I’m so sick and tired of all that,” the actor says emphatically. “It’s so ridiculous.”

Williams doesn’t dispute the facts; he just doesn’t want to dwell on the negative--especially now that he’s starring in his own series, “Double Dare,” set to premiere next Wednesday on CBS.

But push him a little on the subject and he’ll complain sharply about the white power structure in Hollywood that he believes restricts the ways in which minority actors are employed.

“The world is homogeneous; there are all kinds of things going on. But everyone is too chicken to say (on the screen) what’s real,” Williams maintains. “It’s all so political. It’s all about holding onto position and power. You lobby, you filibuster, you create obstacles to keep things running in a certain way.”

The 47-year-old actor doesn’t stop there, however. He argues that viewers also bear responsibility for not demanding a more diversified and realistic presentation of the races in their TV programming.

Too many of them, he contends, “see black men as comedians or as big black bucks. They’re comfortable with that; they’ve gotten used to that. Most people are conditioned to viewing everything in very stereotypic terms: They think that if you’re Jewish, you do Jewish things, or that if you’re Irish, you do Irish things. It’s very hard to deal with that.”

Williams’ way is to accentuate the positive and try to model other views. He looks for film and TV roles that offer him the chance to play non-stereotypic characters who first are interesting, often heroic human beings, and only secondarily happen to be black.

His portrayal of Lando Calrissian in “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi” probably is the best-known example. But other recent roles have included policemen in the TV miniseries “Chiefs” and the feature films “Nighthawks” and “Fear City,” and a government agent in the TV movie “Time Bomb.”

Williams also had a recurring role on “Dynasty” this season, and one of the reasons he accepted it was because the character was a wealthy record company executive, married to a sophisticated singer played by Diahann Carroll. They were portrayed as the social, economic and fashion-plate equals of the Carringtons and were seen kissing passionately and sipping champagne in the bath together. (Of course, that was before their marriage, in typical soap-opera fashion, hit the rocks.)

Now comes “Double Dare’s” Billy Diamond, another rich, stylish character--”a cross,” Williams says, “between David Niven, Cary Grant and Thomas Crown.” He might have added Alexander Mundy, for, like the character in “It Takes a Thief,” Diamond is an accomplished burglar who is forced into service by a law enforcement agency--in this case the San Francisco police department. Ken Wahl co-stars in the lighthearted action show as an ex-convict who works with Diamond.

“The guy is international,” Williams says of his character. “He’s not part of the immediate issues and arguments that go on about differences--especially race differences. He’s just an exciting guy.”

Harvey Shephard, programming chief at CBS, confirms that there is no intention to touch on racial themes. “Double Dare” is a “high-style adventure show,” he says, and Williams was chosen simply because “he is a very dynamic performer, is very likable and has great style.”

“Why should we make a distinction that whenever there’s a black person in the cast, we have to deal with heavy social issues?” Shephard asks.

Williams couldn’t agree more. Although born and raised in Harlem, he chooses to see himself not as a member of an oppressed minority of the United States but rather as an equal among citizens of the world.

“If you don’t see yourself as a ghetto person, your thinking becomes more ubiquitous,” he explains. “It’s black, but it’s black with a certain look, a certain quality.”

He cites the phenomenal success of “The Cosby Show” on NBC this season as an example of his philosophy in action.

“It’s not somebody crying poverty and despair,” Williams explains. “Bill Cosby is Bill Cosby. The audience isn’t buying his color; they’re buying him--the way he discusses things and expresses things. Everybody in the world can relate to what he talks about.”

Williams says he knows full well that the United States still faces serious racial problems, but he feels that the way he can best work to affect change is by showing people their common humanity, not their differences. Therein lies the future, he believes.

“A guy came up to me on the street once and said, ‘You’re one of our 21st-Century actors.’ That,” Williams maintains, “was the greatest compliment I’ve ever had. That guy understood where my head is and what I’m trying to do.”