Der er så meget venstrefløjen ikke forstår, såsom ironi og satire. Det amerikanske Salon har set på “10 “Seinfeld” episodes that are racist and sexist in retrospect”, serien om de fire narcissister, der har den frækhed at”move about the world totally oblivious to their white privilege”.

Jeg vil starte med eksempel 2. “The Café,” Season 3, Episode 7, fordi venstrefløjen antager at alt grinagtigt er højrefløjens vanvid og derfor ikke kan sit eget univers blive spiddet

In this rare episode that features a person of color, the gang ruins yet another innocent bystander’s life. Babu, a Pakistani immigrant, opens up a generic café across the street from Jerry’s apartment. Feeling it is place to give everyone advice, Jerry tells Babu to bring different cuisine to the neighborhood and make the restaurant Pakistani-themed instead. The restaurant fails, and Babu continually yells, “You are a very bad man” cartoonishly while waving his finger at Jerry. Later on in the series, Jerry accidentally gets Babu deported, and the scene is construed as comedy.

The Café handler, som man kan se allerede ud fra dette referat, om den selvfedme venstrefløjen som er venstrefløjens inderste kerne. Den politisk korrekte overskudsbybo, her i den ellers apolitiske Seinfelds skikkelse, føler sig i sin gode ret til både at hylde fremmede kulturer, mens man automatisk er nedladende overfor dens repræsentanter. Ikke nok med det, så interesserer Seinfeld og hans fire venner sig slet ikke for pakistansk madkultur og bliver ikke kunder i den døende forretning, men har nok i at nyde deres kulturelle tolerance i tale, mens de antager at andre samler regningen op. At de etniske figurer, optræder som anmassende etniske clicheer er et bevidst ironisk greb.

Det samme gør sig gældende for eksempel 8. “The Diplomat’s Club,” Season 6 Episode 22

After George’s black boss is offended when he tells him he looks like Sugar Ray Leonard, George goes out of his way to prove he is not racist by trying to find a black man to pretend to be his friend. He stops random black people on the street and asks them to play his friend, finally getting an exterminator to come with him to dinner to meet his boss. Aside from being a super awkward episode, it insinuates that you can’t be racist if you can prove you have one black friend.

De hele handler i Seindfeld om at tage sig ud, om etikette i et kulturløst univers. Andre grunde til at episoder af Seindfeld er racistiske og sexistiske er eksempel 1. “The Stake-Out,” Season 1, Episode 2, da Sainfeld brænder varm på en kvinde og han “gets a date with her, but his approach is creepy and intrusive.”

Eksempel 3. “The Implant,” Season 4, Episode 19, hvor “Jerry meets a buxom woman at his gym and feels compelled to find out if she has breast implants. Rather than simply ask, he enlists Elaine to spy on her in the gym, determine whether her breasts are real or fake, and report back to Jerry.” Spectacular!

Eksempel 4. “The Shoes,” Season 4, Episode 16: “George is caught staring at his boss’ teenage daughter’s cleavage.”

Eksempel 5. “The Cigar Store Indian,” Season 5, Episode 10 “is a good commentary on white male cluelessness, though the Native American woman is portrayed as being overly sensitive.” og det er en interessant problemstilling. For hvis ikke der var oversensitivitet, ville hvide mænd heller ikke være “clueless”.

“The Beard,” Season 6, Episode 16 afvises ligeledes på trods på en formildende omstændighed

While this episode highlights homophobia in the workplace, it is problematic because it reinforces the idea that identifying as gay is a phase that can be rectified with the right heterosexual.

Det gælder vel også “Once you tried black…”?

I “The Chinese Woman,” Season 6, Episode 4 er fejlen at “Seinfeld fetishizes Asian women without having any Asian women actually in the show.” Men det skal blive meget værre i eksempel 9. “The Wizard,” Season 9 Episode 15

The gang can’t figure out if Elaine’s new boyfriend is part black. Determined to figure out his ethnicity, Elaine asks several inadvertent questions about his heritage. After hearing hip-hop music blaring from his apartment and noticing his collection of African masks, Elaine is confident of his blackness. She even calls the black waitress “sister” and says, “It’s okay, my boyfriend is black,” at which point he arrives and tells her he is in fact white and assumed she was Hispanic because her last name is Benes. She says she is not, and they conclude, “So we’re just a couple of white people?” Seinfeld deals with the issue of interracial dating without having any of the characters date an actual person of color.

I eksempel 10. “The Puerto-Rican Day Parade,” Season 9, Episode 20, prøver Kramer at slukke et brændende puertoricansk flag ved at trampe på det, “causing a riot”

After being chased by an angry mob, Kramer shouts, “It’s like this every day in Puerto Rico!” Manuel Mirabal, the president of the National Puerto Rican Coalition, called the episode an “unconscionable insult” to Puerto Ricans.

Og som en konsekvens blev den episode ikke genudsendt af NBC. Verden er fuld af racisme