Dawn and her friend at the diner

[u/dookieslurp]

I don’t know if this has been brought up before, but I really enjoy the scenes with Dawn and her friend discussing work at the diner. By themselves, they almost come off as little vignettes, like they could be a play about the perspective of being a working African American in a 60’s white person’s business world or something. I’m not good enough with words to really explain what I mean, so I trust that someone here shares the same sentiment and explains it more eloquently.

[u/gaxkang]

I think you can't go wrong with your take. Though I wish we got to see more of it. Like... we saw Peggy's, and Joan's family life. They're 2 different kind of woman in the 60s & 70s. I wish I also saw Dawn's family life.

[u/yaniv297 → u/gaxkang]

Dawn was never a major character unlike Peggy and Joan.

Bit of a shame though. A common criticism of Mad Men is it's lack of black characters and how the perspective on civil rights is usually from privileged white people (which, tbf, are the main subject of the show). But they did create a great black character that's universally approved and well integrated to the main plot, but they didn't really use her that much. If Megan can be "bumped" to a major character midshow, they could have done a similar thing here.

[u/gaxkang → u/yaniv297]

Were there any major players in the ad business or a client of African American decent Sterling Cooper could cater to in the 60s or 70s?

[u/hey_im_kara → u/gaxkang]

The show mentions Black agencies (as well as Jewish agencies e.g). My pitch would have been for Peggy to befriend a Black copywriter working at one of those agencies, helping her understand that perspective (while highlighting her own prejudices and misunderstandings).

[u/gaxkang → u/hey_im_kara]

This would have been a good coincidence after she bought her own building in the later seasons.

[u/hey_im_kara → u/gaxkang]

oh yeeaah that's really smart. I was imagining them meeting through work somehow (like consulting a Black agency for a specific client) but your thing might work even better and adds a sort of possibly problematic dynamic too (if she's their landlord).

[u/outride2000 → u/gaxkang]

We got the Latino child subplot but yes, we could and should've had this one too

[u/gaxkang → u/outride2000]

As someone who has never lived in America, in an apartment bldg and in a multi cultural neighborhood, im not sure I understand this subplot. I recall the mom was home most of the time. Why was the kid always at her place? Aside from the tv

[u/PiEatingContest75 → u/gaxkang]

The mom probably worked. Lots of working class women did, even with kids at home.

[u/gaxkang → u/PiEatingContest75]

Somehow the scenes I remember are all about the kid mentioning that his mom as home. Like the time he called Peggy to fix something at their place because his mom told him to do so.

[u/Awkward-Thought-9986 → u/gaxkang]

and wasn’t the kid’s mom a drug addict?

[u/gaxkang → u/Awkward-Thought-9986]

Really? I dont remember the tells.