Last night, Mad Men might have taken its most eyebrow-raising cut so far on race relations.
(spoiler alert)
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Even though Carla (Deborah Lacey), Don and Bettyβs African American housekeeper, had minimal dialogue, and even though references to MLKβs βI Have a Dreamβ speech and the murder of four black girls in Birmingham were deliberately oblique, the show managed to pack a lot in about the evolving black/white dynamic on the early β60s landscape.
Iβm still convinced that the show is βbetter off taking a smaller cut at race issues and really nailing the way they portray black characters, as opposed to weaving in a major racial theme and risking either overdoing or underdoing the nuanceββand in this case, I think it succeeded with that sort-of βless is moreβ approach.
To recap: Henry, Bettyβs would-be lover, shows up unannounced, and a simultaneously amorous but appearance-conscious Betty immediately remarks that theyβll forego any romance because βMy girl is due back any minute.β
Itβs a revealing comment. Though certainly commonplace for a housewife of the time and place to refer to her housekeeper as her βgirl,β it has more meaning to us since we know that really, Betty is the woman-child and Carla is Bettyβs de facto babysitter and erstwhile disapproving parent.
Which only increases the racial irony when, later on, Betty offers Carla her unsolicited commentary on civil rights: βMaybe itβs not supposed to happen right now.β The messageβyou run my household and keep my secrets, but equality might be out of the question. Itβs not quite Kizzie (Leslie Uggams) and Missy Anne (Sandy Duncan) from Roots, but itβs getting there.
This leaves Carla experiencing jeopardy on multiple levels. Sheβs economically tethered to the Drapers, so any disintegration of their family unit can mean unemploymentβkind of like black Americaβs tie to the broader American economy. If you really wanted to stretch the allegory, Carla and Bettyβs relationship is the relationship between black and white America. Carla is Bettyβs moral compass, but she has to take pains not to look like she wants to be Bettyβs moral compass.
Slateβs Julia Turner points out that thereβs an interesting juxtaposition of the perspective of the Northern, Westchester County housewives, who see Southern race violence as very, very far removed, and Carla, whoβs an afterthought to them, even as sheβs literally standing right there, serving them in a domestic capacity, while they discuss race relations at a Rockefeller fundraiser.
Mad Menβs pull, apart from its art direction, is itβs anthropological treatment of mid-century white moresβmade more interesting as it airs during the tenure of Americaβs first black president.
The Drapers and Ossining should be able to see the evolution in society headed toward them, but they feel like itβs still really far away. There are a few progressive souls, like Sallyβs teacher (Abigail Spencer) who says she plans to make βI Have a Dreamβ required reading on the first day of school. Sheβs forecasting change the same way she sees Donβs sexual advances coming. But just as she goes ahead and caves in to Don, anyway, she can see civil rights coming (she went to Bowdoin, after all), but itβs still far removed. At the end of the day, sheβs not a freedom rider or even an inner city schoolteacher, sheβs dancing around a maypole in the βburbs.
David Swerdlick is an associate editor atΒ The Root.Β Follow him on Twitter.Β
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