Racism, resistance, and Reddit: how popular culture sparks online reckonings

This study examines how Reddit users engaged with the racial narratives of HBO’s Watchmen (2019) and Lovecraft Country (2020), two television series that reimagine historical racial trauma. Drawing on multistep flow theory and critical technocultural discourse analysis (CTDA), we analyze 3,879 Reddit comments using topic modeling and critical discourse analysis. We identify three dynamic social roles – advocates, adversaries, and adaptives – and explore how users move between them in response to racial discourse. Findings reveal how Reddit’s pseudonymous affordances shape role fluidity, opinion leadership, and moral engagement. While adversaries minimized or rejected the shows’ portrayals of racism and violence as exaggerated, advocates shared standpoint experiences and resources to challenge these claims. Adaptive users shifted perspectives over time, demonstrating how online publics can foster critical racial learning. This research highlights how popular culture and participatory platforms intersect in shaping collective meaning-making around race and historical memory.