The Push and Pull of Watching Mad Men while Black

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

William Evans opens chapter 40 by recalling his teenage years attending his father’s work functions. His father, a Black chemist who rose into management at a large company, often found himself one of only a few people of color in rooms of more than a hundred white colleagues. Evans connects that feeling of being “out of place” to his experience as a Black viewer of Mad Men, a critically acclaimed drama set in a 1960s advertising agency. He describes watching the show with two minds: one that admired its craftsmanship, acting, and period design, and another that recognized it had no interest in including people like him. Over the show’s eight-season run from 2007 to 2015, Evans counts fewer than a handful of Black characters of consequence—most were elevator operators, secretaries, or maids. He argues this exclusion was intentional on the part of creator Matt Weiner, who deliberately focused on upper-class white stories and resisted calls for diversity. Evans recalls episodes that dealt with historical traumas—the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.—and notes that the white characters’ indifference felt hollow and painful to watch. He points out that racist behavior by characters like Bert Cooper or Pete Campbell rarely carried real consequences, reducing the show’s critiques of racism to empty gestures. Evans imagines alternative storylines set in Chicago, where Black entrepreneurs like Arthur G. Gaston might have challenged the firm, but no such imagination existed in the writers’ room. He eventually stopped watching around season six, only finishing later out of completionism. The chapter ends with a central question: does a show celebrated as one of the best owe anything to a Black audience it never invited?

Key Events

Evans describes attending his father’s mostly white corporate functions in the mid-1990s and feeling out of place.
He explains his dual viewing experience of Mad Men: appreciation of its quality and awareness of its racial exclusion.
He highlights the show’s eight-year, ninety-two-episode run with barely a handful of Black characters, none above service roles.
He references the JFK assassination episode featuring the Black maid Loretta sitting with Betty Draper.
He notes the episode dealing with Dr. King’s assassination, where the white characters react with indifference.
He cites examples of racist behavior (Roger’s blackface, Pete’s outbursts, Bert moving a Black secretary) that never result in meaningful consequences.
He imagines alternative possibilities like a Black businessman from Chicago or a cosmetics company targeting Black clients.
He recalls Peggy’s storyline with a Latino boy named Julio, which he sees as tokenistic.
He states he dropped the show around season six, then finished it later.

Character Development

William Evans: The author evolves from a conflicted fan to a critical viewer who stops watching, then returns as a completionist. His perspective sharpens from “two minds” to a unified view that the show’s exclusion is deliberate and harmful.
William Evans’s father: A Black chemist who rose in management but remained isolated among white colleagues; his experience forms an early comparison to the world of Mad Men.
Matt Weiner: The show’s creator is characterized as intentionally myopic, praised by some critics for telling a narrow story but criticized by Evans for refusing to integrate meaningful Black perspectives.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

The push and pull of consuming media that excludes you: Evans’s central tension between admiring craft and feeling unwelcome.
Intentional exclusion versus historical realism: Weiner’s defense of accuracy is questioned when the show overlooks Black businesspeople of the era.
Hollow critique of racism: The show presents racist characters but never holds them accountable, making its social commentary feel performative.
The burden of representation: Evans implies that excluding marginalized perspectives in acclaimed works sends a message about who belongs in cultural memory.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter is a key entry in Black Nerd Problems because it tackles the uncomfortable position many Black viewers occupy when engaging with celebrated mainstream media. Evans refuses to let the show’s technical brilliance excuse its racial limitations. By linking his personal family history to his viewing experience, he grounds abstract criticism in lived reality. The chapter challenges readers to consider how storytelling choices—what is included and what is omitted—shape not only entertainment but also cultural validation. It also expands the book’s conversation beyond comic books and sci-fi to prestige television, showing that the problem of representation spans all genres.

Study Questions and Answers

1. How does Evans use his father’s experience to frame his critique of Mad Men?
Evans recounts attending his father’s company functions where he was one of very few Black families, mirroring the isolation he later felt as a Black viewer of Mad Men. His father rose high enough in management that he became separated from other Black employees, a dynamic Evans sees replicated in the show’s corporate world, where people of color are either absent or pushed to the margins.

2. What does Evans identify as the fundamental flaw in how Mad Men handles racism?
He argues that the show depicts racist behavior—Roger’s blackface, Pete’s outbursts, Bert moving a secretary—but never allows those actions to carry significant consequences. The characters remain in power or get promoted, making the show’s criticism of racism feel hollow and performative rather than substantive.

3. Why does Evans suggest that the show’s setting in New York rather than Chicago limited its potential for Black representation?
Evans points out that by the 1960s, Chicago had Black entrepreneurs like Arthur G. Gaston and legacies like Annie Malone’s cosmetics empire. A storyline involving the firm pursuing Black clients or facing a Black competitor would have forced characters to confront race in a meaningful way. The show’s New York setting and its creative choices avoided such possibilities, reinforcing the exclusion he criticizes.