'Mad Men' and black characters: Negative depictions in the name of diversity?

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Focusing on negative black narratives

In Matthew Weiner’s Mad Men world, Don Draper’s black secretary toils, has a few lines, an occasional eye roll of disgust at his indulgent antics and a little back story. Earlier black characters have included the elevator guy; Carla, the black housekeeper; a nameless mugger; a movie theater custodian; and most recently, a chatty and disheveled thief, a grandmotherly type who menaces the Draper children and robs the family blind, and unseen minorities who physically attack whites gentrifying the Upper West Side.

Seasons back, Mad Men did include a story line that dealt with a client’s reluctance to be too closely associated with black consumers – an incident that mirrored a real-life Pepsi anecdote from the 1940s. But it managed to omit the black ad executives and all-black sales teams tasked with carrying out the strategy who drove the historic event.

Indeed, trying to find an African-American in a Mad Men role that is not a criminal or subservient is tough.

Personal vision vs. Depicting blacks realistically

If that is Weiner’s personal vision, then it’s valid, of course. If the explanation to every critic is “that’s the way it was,” well, that’s a lazy way out.

When asked a question about diversity on his show by Gayle King last year when she was guest hosting Charlie Rose, Weiner said, “Honestly, this is always considered controversial when I say it, but black people still do not have representation on Madison Avenue.”

That view may be touted by the show’s defenders as refreshingly un-PC, but it’s not the whole truth. Scarcity does not justify a blackout (especially a historically inaccurate one), and I’d like to believe that writers as creative and imaginative enough to get so much right could figure out how to depict blacks realistically as well.

Mad Men creator: Purposely perverse?

Perhaps this is Weiner being purposely perverse as an answer to critics who have complained of the show’s lack of diversity. “You want black characters?” he may be thinking. “I’ll give you a cameo from (as fictional executive Pete Campbell on the show described one black character) ‘a 200-pound Negro prostitute.’ Are you satisfied?”

Actually, I’m horrified. I don’t claim to profess that these are Weiner’s true thoughts. But, if that’s what he has in mind in terms of incorporating diversity — please no more black characters.

With the show in the doldrums, with a sweaty, desperate Don Draper losing his professional and personal touch and mired in by-the-numbers flashbacks to his woeful youth, perhaps a trip outside the all-white bubble — to let a little 1960s real realism into its hermetic world — is the creative jolt Mad Men needs. Black characters based on real people like Georg Olden might be just the thing.

Follow Mary on Twitter @mcurtisnc3