MovieChat Forums > Seinfeld (1989) Discussion > On Seinfeld, Black people are mostly rel...

On Seinfeld, Black people are mostly relegated to the margins, existing as agents of public decency


https://www.vulture.com/2020/08/seinfeld-rewatch-close-read.html

Phil Morris' Jackie Chiles is "the exception that proves the rule — a Black character who is just as comical as the whites," says Lauren Michele Jackson, pointing out that Seinfeld is packed with certain Black characters who are "deprived of a name." Jackson adds: "But Black people have never been nonexistent, or invisible, in the white sitcom. They have been invisible only in the way that Black people who service the margins of white world-making must be. In a genre whose conventions (and hilarity) thrive on white ridiculousness, Black people, relegated to the smallest of parts, exist to rein in the free play of whites, reminding viewers how safely deviant the main cast can be. No show exhibits this effect as quietly as the one that crested in lockstep with the ’90s culture wars, the quintessential sitcom and, in one woman’s opinion, the greatest — Seinfeld.....Black people on Seinfeld play a very particular role, defining the social edges of 'very,' or too much. A thankless job, to be sure. There’s no glory in it or, it seems, much fun. I am charmed, though. They foil the Black bestie type, the sidekick destined to enliven a white protagonist’s script and social life with idioms and shade. All the bombast, wackiness, and camp belong in the domain of the four protagonists — Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer, plus a rotating circle of co-conspirators. The conceit of Seinfeld resides in its middle-class sympathies; its normcore aesthetic invites the assumption that its characters are conventional, living and moving about in a world held together by the titular character’s observational joke style. In truth, the group is selfish and deranged, delicious micromenaces to normalcy and etiquette who nonetheless enter and leave each episode with their worlds intact. When white characters run wild on Seinfeld, Black people are cops. They exist as agents of public decency next to whom our main characters appear all the more indecent."

reply

Seinfeld is one of the best TV comedies of all time.

Vulture should get their heads out of their butts and stop wringing their hands and waggling their fingers at everybody for not checking boxes (and then yelling at them for checking boxes because it's "tokenism" when they do). If they did, they'd realise (maybe) that Larry David spoofed himself on this point in Curb Your Enthusiasm. Of course, they'd be so offended by Curb that their heads would spin around and explode...

reply

Black and white cookie. Solidarity!

reply

Why is it that the people who are obsessed with calling everyone and everything racist are always the most blatantly and disgustingly racist themselves? What a load of horseshit.

reply

Seinfeld is a very insular show. A small tight group of friends and their world. It's very hard to add people to that group though Newman was a brilliant character. The show is built around the characters making fun of each other's foibles and flaws so had a black actor been used some idiot would have spotted some racism somewhere.

Seinfeld deals with race in a non toxic way:
George trying to impress a black co worker by getting a black friend.
Jerry being politically incorrect with a native American woman he finds attractive.
Jerry excited about dating a woman he thinks is Chinese America but is actually white.

Asians on the show come off as sharp angry and unfeeling people at times if somebody is looking for something to bitch about.

reply

No rational person would bitch about any of this stuff.

reply

Exceptions don't prove rules, they undermine them, which is just the opposite. Normalcy?

reply

The author of this article clearly hates the Cosby show but is afraid to be called a racist.

reply