"Wake up, Boo": race and the performance of wokeness in Big Brother 22

Through a critical reading of the twenty-second season of CBS' Big Brother (BB22), this essay outlines how the series performs wokeness and examines the significance of these performances for contemporary understandings of race. I argue the series performs wokeness through enacting microreparat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inCommunication and critical/cultural studies Vol. 22; no. 1; pp. 119 - 135
Main Author Blackwell, Gretta
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 02.01.2025
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
"Woke TV"
Cultural studies
gamedocs
Race
reality television
wokeness
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Summary:Through a critical reading of the twenty-second season of CBS' Big Brother (BB22), this essay outlines how the series performs wokeness and examines the significance of these performances for contemporary understandings of race. I argue the series performs wokeness through enacting microreparations and promoting allyship, but simultaneously preserves the racial status quo. This double maneuver highlights the battle for dominance that is being waged between post-racialism and wokeness - two key racial ideologies in the United States. Ultimately, BB22 demonstrates that wokeness, if fully mobilized, holds the potential to spark productive change - in the BB house and in everyday life.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
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ISSN:1479-1420
1479-4233
DOI:10.1080/14791420.2024.2443157