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White sitcoms have of late united, disavowing the misbegotten race play of televisions recent past.
After all, the American sitcom, like so many national institutions, has an earned reputation for segregation.
But Black people have never been nonexistent, or invisible, in the white sitcom.
Black people onSeinfeldplay a very particular role, defining the social edges of very, or too much.
A thankless job, to be sure.
Theres no glory in it or, it seems, much fun.
I am charmed, though.
When white characters run wild onSeinfeld,Black people are cops.
They exist as agents of public decency next to whom our main characters appear all the more indecent.
Shouldering up next to the unenthused supervisor, George tells Mr. Morgan he resembles the boxer Sugar Ray Leonard.
I suppose we all look alike to you.
He looks for solidarity among his colleagues all white who file out of the room on cue.
My question to you is, Whos putting your pants on?
In The Airport, Elaine slips into first class from coach and stumbles into an open window seat.
In The One Where Emma Cries, Chandlermistakesthe name of his boss, Elaine (Fresh Princes O.G.
Aunt Viv, Janet Hubert), and misgenders her daughter.
Like mostblack people who speak within the course of the show, she flies under the radar.
With appearances so minor, the demographics of the show might as well round-up to white.
This feature or bug of Americas sitcoms complements another brainchild of broadcast media: the crime procedural.
TV has long had a polices-eye perspective,Kathryn VanArendonk wrote in June.
Order, a police-imposed status quo, is good; disruption is bad.
The sitcom takes itself much less seriously than that.
But here, only the cherished have the privilege of genuine buffoonery.
Her unruly performance is magnetic.
The shows most audacious Black presence materializes in the character of Jackie Chiles (Phil Morris).
The oddness of their coupledom persists throughout the series.
The quartet is convicted; the show could end no other way just deserts for the delinquents.
Yet this is no crime procedural, and the show is not over.
Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer stroll to their cell, and their bit resumes.
Well be out in a year and then well be back, Jerry says, shrugging.
It is just the four white and unfazed.
