Seinfeld by Paul Arras

Author:Paul Arras
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2012-06-22T16:00:00+00:00

Seinfeld and Race

For the most part, the New York City the characters inhabited was overwhelmingly white—yet another characteristic the show shared with the films of Woody Allen. The characters had all white friends and romantic partners, and even their colleagues were almost entirely white. A few characters of color did appear, but the diversity of the world of the show did not resemble the reality of the city at the time, and by the end of Seinfeld’s run, it was regularly criticized for this fact.

To the show’s credit, Seinfeld occasionally referenced this criticism, most notably and self-deprecatingly in “The Diplomat’s Club” (season 6, episode 21). In the episode, George is trying to get on good terms with his boss, Mr. Morgan, who is black. Trying to be complimentary, he tells Morgan that he looks like Sugar Ray Leonard. Morgan takes offense to this and accuses George of being racist.

Horrified, George begins an episode-long quest to find a black friend in order to prove to Morgan that he is not prejudiced. As the episode’s writers admit, this gave them a thinly veiled excuse to go back and show some of the black characters who had appeared on the show over the course of the season, thus answering critics who had noted the show’s lack of black characters and, in effect, acknowledging that lack.[9] George’s search for a black friend subtly mirrors Seinfeld’s own defensiveness about its depictions of minorities. Eventually, George calls Carl, an exterminator who fumigated Jerry’s apartment in the previous episode, “The Doodle,” into the Yankee offices. Finding Morgan has left for the day, George treats Carl to a meal at the restaurant where he knows Morgan will be. Morgan eventually sees through George’s ploy and storms out of the restaurant. Moments later, George’s black waiter tells him the bill is on the house for Morgan, whom he has mistaken to be Sugar Ray Leonard.

In “The Wizard” (season 9, episode 15), Elaine presumes that Darryl, the man she is dating, is black, and becomes excited at the idea she is in an interracial relationship. However, she later discovers that Darryl incorrectly thinks she is Hispanic because of her last name Benes. “So, we’re just a couple of white people?” Darryl sighs. The two are very disappointed. As in “The Diplomat’s Club,” this episode is a tongue-in-cheek acknowledgment of the show’s lack of black characters, revealing how the pursuit of diversity can be disingenuous.

Here and there, the city depicted on the show could feel cosmopolitan, though its international diversity was usually oversimplified, like Babu Bhatt, a Pakistani immigrant who opens a restaurant near Jerry’s apartment in “The Café” (season 3, episode 7). When the restaurant struggles, Jerry suggests that Babu convert the menu to his native Pakistani cuisine. In the years after Seinfeld, Pakistani restaurants would become more commonplace in American cities, but in this episode, Jerry admits that he has never tried the food, and the restaurant ends up failing.

The next season, Jerry again tries to help Babu, getting him an apartment in his building and a job at Monk’s.

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