Colorism in 'Pop the Balloon or Find Love'

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(Trackz)
Alexander's Civil Sphere Theory and 'Pop the Balloon or Find Love'

This screenshot is from Episode 16 of the YouTube show “Pop the Balloon or Find Queer Love”, which is a gay spinoff of the more popular straight version of “Pop the Balloon or Find Love,” airing also on YouTube. The two shows are made by and for Black folks which, along with the show being an amateur production on YouTube, allows the show to not have many of the fake and racist qualities of many other romantic reality shows. The contestant walks into a room of single guys with balloons and through questions and first impressions the single guys pop their balloons if they are not romantically interested in the contestant. The still above depicts a segment of the show where the contestant, Josiah, with the striped sweater on the left, has introduced himself to the host of the show, Trackz. As he was introducing himself, one of the guys, Elijah on the right, popped his balloon. In this still, Trackz is asking Elijah why he popped his balloon while Josiah is listening. Elijah explains that he popped his balloon saying, “I just don’t like lightskins, personally, in my opinion, no shade. … Every lightskin I encountered has been childish and a little sassy, so it’s a no for me” (Trackz, starting 3:35). This is a striking example of colorism, similar examples of which have come up in prior episodes as well. The comment section reflects the absurdity with one commenter, @destinylachelle, saying, “The colorism is so crazy like in EVERY episode it never fails. We all black!!!!”

This show is produced by independent producer Trackz on YouTube. This image is from Episode 16 of the show in Season 2. He continues to produce this show because it garners a lot of interest and viewership, around two hundred thousand views per episode. The original version of the show, hosted by Arlette Amuli, is about to hit its one hundredth episode and garners above a million views per episode. This is to say that the show is culturally significant and is part of a larger and popular trend.


I’d like to approach this comment in the episode using Alexander’s civil sphere theory. Alexander, in his The Civil Sphere, posits that the ‘civil sphere’ is a distinct cultural sphere in society that generates solidarity and a moral community. Each sphere is a district domain of social life with its own logics or norms and produces certain social goods: money in the case of the economic sphere, salvation in the religious sphere, and more. He explains, “Civil society is also constituted by its own distinctive structure of elites, by the institutional oligarchies that direct the legal and communications systems, the influentials who exercise persuasion through civil associations, and the ‘movement intellectuals’ who lead social movements” (Alexander 54). Civil society, with its many spheres including the civil sphere thus contain communicative institutions and civil associations that persuade through influence, presumably referring to institutions such as the courts and political office. Alexander adds, “But civil society is not merely an institutional realm. It is also a realm of structures, socially established consciousness, a network of understandings creating structures of feeling that permeate social life and run just below the surface of strategic institutions and self-conscious elites” (54). Therefore the civil sphere theory is connected to the Durkheimian tradition with its reference to structures and consciousnesses of social feeling, which operate alongside communicative institutions and civil associations. These cultural structures, Alexander later defines, are civil and anticivil codes, which exist in the domains of motives, relations, and institutions. All three are reproduced below (57–59). 



(57)
(58)

(59)

In the episode, Elijah is making a reference to greater structures in society to explain why he does not want to romantically pursue Josiah. This runs counter to the ideal of such shows, which are built on the assumption that people would choose their potential partners on their attraction and how compatible they are. However, the kind of ‘scaling up’ Elijah is doing is very common. Elijah explains that he popped his balloon saying, “I just don’t like lightskins, personally, in my opinion, no shade. … Every lightskin I encountered has been childish and a little sassy, so it’s a no for me” (Trackz, starting 3:35). Elijah is referencing the anticivil motives of hysterical, excitable, and wild-passionate by saying ‘childish’ and self-interested and deceitful by saying ‘sassy’. Hence, in Elijah's eyes Josiah is partly uncivil, because of Elijah's colorist bias. Further, his comment establishes the show as a communicative institution in itself--it is emanating cultural codes to the rest of civil society. By invoking civil codes and attributing anticivil codes to Josiah to make his argument, Elijah is effectively doing the work of defining the civil sphere and who belongs in his world as a legitimate, civil actor (partner in this case) who deserves to be treated with respect. Josiah responds by challenging that he is not childish, although he can get sassy (Trackz). Because he responds with the same language as Elijah it shows that they are operating on the same civil code. They agree on what is civil and anticivil, and of the rules of inclusion and exclusion. The theories of Alexander shed a light on the rampant colorism in the show when heavy comments like these are passed around without much thought or challenge. Even though the host makes a face of disbelief and shock after Elijah's comment, it goes largely unchallenged, effectively redefining the civil sphere. I hope the show can become a more positive space for Black gays who are looking for love on the show.



Sources

Alexander, Jeffrey C. 2006. The Civil Sphere. Oxford UP.


Trackz. 2026, Mar 24. "Ep 16: Pop The Balloon or Find QUEER Love (ATL) | With Trackz".

https://youtu.be/ikcbSi-1KGs?t=184. Accessed Apr 3, 2026.



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