Reality TV sweeps us along on a tour of American inequality. These shows participate in our broader national narrative about pulling oneself up by one’s bootstraps—a narrative that helps to keep us comfortable with our unequal allocation of money and resources and power. But despite its controlling images, the genre shows us glimmers of something broader happening behind the curtain—clues that our social positioning is not just about our personal choices or morality. America’s interwoven classism and our racism, which the genre splays out for us in gargantuan caricature, are part of our
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