Don’t Make My Entertainment Political! Social Media Responses to Narratives of Racial Duty on Competitive Reality Television Series

Harbin, M. Brielle

doi:10.1080/10584609.2023.2195365

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 31 publications

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“…When initially designing the study, I was primarily interested in investigating the articulation of narratives of racial duty during the 41st season of Survivor because it was filmed not too long after the 2020 U.S. racial uprisings in response to the murder of George Floyd while in police custody. I focused specifically on this season given Harbin's (2023) study documenting viewer backlash on social media to Black players' discussion of feelings of racialized social obligation when appearing as contestants on this season. With that said, I decided to include additional seasons in the analysis in an effort to better contextualize the findings from Season 41.…”

Section: Data Generationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Narratives of Racial Duty: Competitive Reality Television Series as Sites for Studying Racialized Social Obligations and Black Group-Based Decision-Making

Harbin

2023

J. Race Ethnicity Politics

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How do Black Americans practice a politics of racial group uplift while balancing their individual material interests? Traditionally, scholars have drawn on linked fate theory. However, more recent work argues that Black Americans remain politically unified because they feel race-based social pressure to conform more than a sense of linked fate. Employing a novel research design, I use the competitive reality television series, Survivor, to observe and analyze Black group-based decision-making. Through an inductive thematic content analysis of 13 Survivor episodes, I identified five themes in Black players’ discussions of racialized social obligations when playing the game—what I call narratives of racial duty. Claims that emerged in this storytelling suggested that similar to the political world, Black Survivor contestants were keenly aware of the racialized social obligations for them as contestants in the game. For some, this reality felt like a burden. For others, it presented an opportunity. These reactions led some Black players to work together and others to construct a rationale for defecting from race-based alliances. I conclude by making the case that analyzing entertainment programs offers race and politics scholars a new site for identifying common scripts used to adhere to (and sidestep) racialized social norms.

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Section: Data Generationmentioning

confidence: 99%