Neither paragons nor charity cases. They’re just a bunch of warts-and-all people chasing the American Dream as hard and fast, and often as clueless, as most everyone else” (Abdul-Jabbar, TIME).
The line-up of reality television presented by the Bravo network features more African-American people than any other network besides BET. Mainstream television now possesses more shows with a character of color as the main character thanks in part to Bravo. The message presented by Bravo, but more importantly the scope of reality television as a whole is that ordinary people can become important overnight. Wealth can accumulate to any degree. The thrill to viewers of reality television is of the potential to become millionaires and celebrities overnight. How reality television has the potential to make ordinary people celebrities overnight is what will contribute most to our collective memory.
“The stories of the past presented in media, especially on television, are far more visceral than those presented in the classroom” (Edy, Journalistic Uses of Collective