Commodifying Black Expressivity: Race and the Representational Politics of Streetball

Abstract

The distinct style of basketball popularly termed “streetball” is inextricably linked to Black bodies, spaces, and forms of expression. Although streetball operates as a Black cultural repertoire constituted in response to historical marginalization, I demonstrate how representations of streetball in mainstream media are underpinned by, and thus reify, harmful racial logics that circulate throughout even purportedly innocuous forms of popular culture in the “colorblind” neoliberal moment. Through a textual analysis of three of the most culturally renowned media representations of streetball—the television show AND1 Mixtape Tour, the video game series NBA Street, and the film Uncle Drew—I argue that streetball is depicted as illustrative of the perceived pathological and inferior nature of Blackness; romanticized and divorced from the structural contexts of its production; and materially and symbolically exploited by corporate commercial entities. I conclude by reflecting on how mediated commodification often participates in reproducing, trivializing, and concealing the effects of structural racism and suggest that critical analyses of the politics of popular culture must inform anti-racist objectives.