MM, like the Sopranos, is race realist without being anti-black or anti-Jewish.
On interracial dating:
A young executive dates a black girl. The office manager explains to him his real motivation, 'So you have your poor little rich boy apartment in Newark or wherever. And you're dating Sheila, the grocery store check out girl, because you think it makes you interesting.'
On Jews:
'This firm has never hired a Jew. And never will.'
'Oh, he's not a Jew now. But trust me, he was once.'
Re two account executives who botched a commercial shoot, 'No thanks to Loeb and Leopold here.'
A potential Jewish client realizes none of the firm's members have even stepped inside her department store.
Reviewers of the show make a point of highlighting what they think is MM's expose of early 60's racism. But MM has a different effect. At one point the main character Dan Draper is in the elevator. Two men get on. Then a middle aged woman. The two men begin to brag of their sexual exploits. Draper wants them to stop out of respect for the lady present without embarrassing her further but doesn't know how to do it. Then it occurs to him, 'Take your hat off.' 'Is there a problem?', asks one of the proto-playas. Wordlessly Draper takes the man's hat off and shoves it into his chest. Problem solved, but don't try that in our more enlightened age.
Somehow these mere white people are competent, witty, insightful and courageous. They do bad things, such as cheat on their wives. They do things which are only now considered bad, drink and smoke and fail to consider non-whites wondrous in all regards.
But there is also a level of tolerance rarely credited to ogres. The character Peggy Olsen rises from secretary to copy writer only because she's good at it (another secretary loses her job, with little drama, only because she's bad at it). It's no secret the art director is homosexual, but who really gives a damn? Draper is known by Senior Partner Cooper to be a man with a fabricated background, but once again, who gives a damn?
Subversive.
On interracial dating:
A young executive dates a black girl. The office manager explains to him his real motivation, 'So you have your poor little rich boy apartment in Newark or wherever. And you're dating Sheila, the grocery store check out girl, because you think it makes you interesting.'
On Jews:
'This firm has never hired a Jew. And never will.'
'Oh, he's not a Jew now. But trust me, he was once.'
Re two account executives who botched a commercial shoot, 'No thanks to Loeb and Leopold here.'
A potential Jewish client realizes none of the firm's members have even stepped inside her department store.
Reviewers of the show make a point of highlighting what they think is MM's expose of early 60's racism. But MM has a different effect. At one point the main character Dan Draper is in the elevator. Two men get on. Then a middle aged woman. The two men begin to brag of their sexual exploits. Draper wants them to stop out of respect for the lady present without embarrassing her further but doesn't know how to do it. Then it occurs to him, 'Take your hat off.' 'Is there a problem?', asks one of the proto-playas. Wordlessly Draper takes the man's hat off and shoves it into his chest. Problem solved, but don't try that in our more enlightened age.
Somehow these mere white people are competent, witty, insightful and courageous. They do bad things, such as cheat on their wives. They do things which are only now considered bad, drink and smoke and fail to consider non-whites wondrous in all regards.
But there is also a level of tolerance rarely credited to ogres. The character Peggy Olsen rises from secretary to copy writer only because she's good at it (another secretary loses her job, with little drama, only because she's bad at it). It's no secret the art director is homosexual, but who really gives a damn? Draper is known by Senior Partner Cooper to be a man with a fabricated background, but once again, who gives a damn?
Subversive.
