Commodifying Black Expressivity

Race and the Representational Politics of Streetball

Datos Bibliográficos

ID13049189
AutoresBrandon T Wallace (0000-0002-9943-1171, University of Maryland, College Park, autor de correspondencia)
Año2020
Volumen10
Número6
Páginas1053-1069
Fecha de publicación2020-07-31
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCommunication & Sport (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 2167-4795 • E-ISSN: 2167-4809
EditorialSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/2167479520945222
OpenAlexW3046361448
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas3
Referencias citadas17

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

Aesthetics · Art · Commodification · Ideology · Mainstream · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Popular culture · Race (biology · Racism · Repertoire · Sociology · Gender Studies · Media Influence and Health · Sport and Mega-Event Impacts · Sports, Gender, and Society