Black Themed Reality Television & Racial Identity: Gendered Perceptions from Black College Students

Abstract

Using the Black Themed Reality Television (BTRT) show, The Real Housewives of Atlanta (RHoA) as a medium, the purpose of this study was to understand the degree in which Black men and women perceive realism while watching RHoA. By employing racial identity and perceived realism scales as variables, the researcher sought to determine the degree in which racial identity levels contributed to a difference in perceived realism from each gender. After watching a full episode of RHoA, 36 women and 20 men specified their perceptions of reality based on depictions of Black women on the show. Using the Mann-Whitney U-test, no statistical significance of variables was found during analysis. Three general conclusions about racial identity and media preference were drawn from the findings.