Mad Men and Race

I don’t know about you all but I am a huge Mad Men fan. Many of the things that we have discussed in this class remind me of the show simply because we are dealing with the same time period in class that is portrayed in the show. Since the beginning of the show, critics have questioned the way in which African Americans are portrayed in the show, saying that they are almost not shown at all. Instead the only blacks that are in the show are in roles of servitude. The critics are right: very few African Americans were portrayed in the show. But this is an accurate depiction of what life looked like for a well to do white family in the 60s.

In the very first episode Donald Draper, the leading character in the show, is sitting in a restaurant working on an ad campaign for Lucky Strike Cigarettes. A black busboy named Sam comes to the table next to Don to clear the table. Don then asks him a question about smoking and the two begin to have good conversation about why they smoke the brand of cigarettes that they do. However, the white restaurant manager sees this happening and automatically assumes that Don does not want to be conversing with the busboy. The manager comes over and quickly tells Sam to get back to work and apologizes to Don. This event is significant because it reinforces the ideas that we have learned in class about the view that African Americans are only good at jobs that serve others. Sam was portrayed at a hardworking man who only speaks when spoken to. However, that was not good enough for the white manager.

In the first few years of the show, Carla, the Draper’s housekeeper and nanny, was the only African American women portrayed in the show. Again, this image of a black housekeeper reinforces the stereotypical view that African American women especially, are only meant to work in jobs where they are at the service of others. Just like the images of Aunt Jemima, which depict the stereotypical role of black women, Carla is shown taking orders from Betty, Don’s wife, and taking care of the children. Furthermore, she is portrayed as an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement but does not dare to say that she wants racial equality for fear of termination. The relationship between Carla and Betty is an interesting one. Betty simply does not understand why blacks would want civil rights and is almost clueless as to what life is like for African Americans. In an episode set in 1963, Carla is at the Draper household listening to the funeral of the girl’s killed in the 16^th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham. Betty then says, “Maybe civil rights isn’t supposed to happen right now.” This scene reinforces the idea that Betty, and most women from her social standing, are clueless about their white privilege.

Lastly, Hollis is the elevator operator in the building where Don’s advertising agency is housed. He, like Sam and Carla, is portrayed as a service man to privileged white men. One of the most tension filled racial problems in the show revolves around Hollis. Pete Campbell, an account man, is given the task of finding a new campaign strategy for Admiral Television when he realizes that sales are the highest among black consumers. He then pitches a black-targeted marketing campaign with ads in Ebony and black newspapers. However he is quickly shut down by his superiors when an agency partner Bert Cooper says, “Admiral Television has no interest in becoming a colored television company.” Although Cooper is portrayed to be quite liberal in his views on social justice and civil rights, he knows that racism is good for their business. If whites see that African Americans are buying products that whites have, whites will stop buying those products. Like Betty, Pete is such a child of privilege that he has no understanding of the politics of race in America.

An article about this issue of African Americans in Mad Men was published in Slate Magazine (I will put the link at the end of this post). Interestingly, the authors detailed his thoughts about race in advertising, something I have not thought much about before. The author argues that the racism that was alive in advertising in the 60s is still true today. The author writes that white consumers will still abandon a product once its brand is “too black” and black consumers will abandon a product that is “too black” for the reason of not wanting to be stereotyped. Even today where famous African American celebrities endorse certain products, there is very much a tipping point in today’s advertising age. The moment a product is considered “too black” or even “ghetto,” white consumers will abandon those products and African Americans will too.

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/features/2012/mad_men_and_race_the_series_handling_of_race_has_been_painfully_accurate_/mad_men_and_race_the_series_handling_of_race_has_been_painfully_accurate_.html