The surge of U.S. reality television shows focused on “making over” contestants has paralleled the decline of the welfare state, the eradication of Affirmative Action, and the rise of the prison-industrial complex. This article examines MTV’s From G’s to Gents to consider questions of neoliberal governmentality and race. By analyzing the show’s relationship to the prison system, enterprise culture, and heteronormativity, I argue that the show functions as a technology that governs black freedom under neoliberalism.
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