Maya Phillips says ‘Mad Men’ sidelined Black characters despite meticulous craft

Maya Phillips, an arts and culture critic for The New York Times, wrote that when she rewatched Mad Men on HBO Max she found that the series’ careful scripting and design did not extend to its Black characters. Phillips highlighted Carla, played by Deborah Lacey, as the main recurring Black character in the show’s early seasons and noted that Carla functions largely as a witness and a kind of silent judge of the Draper family.

She said Carla’s abrupt firing at the end of Season 4—prompted by a minor incident in which Carla briefly lets a neighborhood boy speak to Sally—serves a narrative purpose but also underscores how the show uses Carla as a domestic foil rather than a fully realized person. Phillips also described Dawn Chambers (Teyonah Parris), introduced after an ad was misread as an equal-opportunity posting, as a recurring character who is treated as a prop.

She noted a Season 6 scene that briefly shows Dawn’s life outside the office but called it a “fake-out,” arguing the series repeatedly deploys Black characters—elevator attendants, janitors, waitresses—as background moral observers for white characters. The critic wrote that even major civil rights events in the show mainly illuminate white characters, and she said she imagines a version of Mad Men in which Don interacts with fully drawn Black characters.

Key Topics

Culture, Mad Men, Maya Phillips, Deborah Lacey, Dawn Chambers, Teyonah Parris