An ethics of complicit criticism for postmodern satire

Postmodern, satiric critique destabilizes notions of truth through performances marked simultaneously by apparent inauthenticity and a commitment to the reality of the performance. The uncertainty about these performances' meanings complicates their potential for social transformation. Satiric critiques of racism exemplify this limitation, particularly when performed by white artists. This satire often earns the label "ironic racism," and the satirist ostensibly committed to racial justice finds herself stuck between complicit reproduction of oppressive ideologies and a desire to destabilize those meaning systems. This article suggests that an ethics of complicit criticism presents a self-consciously doubled performance that necessarily amplifies a satirist's concurrent complicity with the dominant ideologies the performance attacks. To identify a model for embracing this doubled performance, this article considers the problem of ironic racism that satirist Stephen Colbert negotiated on his Comedy Central news satire The Colbert Report (2005-14) and his response to the #CancelColbert campaign.