AMC series Mad Men continued its schizophrenic depiction of minorities. Last week, the staff completely ignored the Black woman selling coffee. The latest episode featured another appearance by Carla, the Draper’s Black housekeeper. She not only delivered dialogue, but the Drapers treated her with politeness and even a modicum of affection. In fact, Carla probably received more legitimate respect than any woman—or any man, for that matter—on the show to date. Go figure.
2 comments:
Well, Carla's taking care of their kids. She's not just doling out coffee-and behind an anonymous cart.
I get the sense that the show is depicting ethnic segregation in a fairly plausible fashion. When you're engaged in high office politics you do not address the custodial or serving staff; when you're talking to your children's daycare worker you're much more likely to have a real conversation.
I don't believe skin color or ethnicity enters into it, or not in the way it seems you're suggesting here. You don't see black ad execs in the series because there were no black ad execs in 1962. You don't see the cast addressing it because it wasn't thought of in that era. MLK had yet to deliver his "I have a Dream" speech; segregation was still very much an active force all over the US.
There is the intriguing possibility that this will be delved into in another season, too; that could be one reason for the treatment you see now. But if you're expecting to see a lot of civil rights activism in a series set in a whitebread business during a whitebread decade, you might be waiting a very long time.
I've seen 1 1/2 episodes of Mad Men. That was more than enough to know I wouldn't make it to two.
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