But the show has nothing to do with blacks and their struggle. If it were a period piece that focused on many different aspects of that era, then yes of course the civil rights movement should be focused on more heavily. But it's not, it's a character piece that happens to be set in the 60's, and our main characters are ad executives. Spending time focusing on black characters when they have nothing at all to do with the actual storyline -- for the sake of showing the 'struggle' -- is cheap in my mind and would irritate me if I were black. Let's not spend time focusing on characters that are irrelevant to the life of Don, Peggy etc for the sake of bringing attention to the injustices of the world when the show's message has nothing to do with fighting injustice or intolerance.
I hope I don't sound like a racist
And i'm not saying Mad Men has done anything like that, in fact they don't focus on unimportant characters at all and that is one more reason that it's one of the best shows of all time. The criticism of the show for its lack of focus on minorities is my problem. It has nothing to do with the characters because none of them are activists so why would we have a well-developed black character?
The women thing is an interesting point but facts are facts -- women's rights had blossomed already in that point in history bringing women into the workplace and getting them positions of substance. That just wasn't true for blacks in that era and the show reflects that with their absence.