When I was reading through the text this quote stuck out to me with the idea of “racial democracy” being a myth “Two years after helping Brazil win the South American championship, Friedenreich fell victim to the sporadic policy of selecting all-white teams for away matches in Argentina and Uruguay. Fearing the notion that fielding a black player would reflect poorly on Brazil, president Epitácio Pessoa allegedly lobbied for Friedenreich’s exclusion from the 1921 South American championships despite his critical role two years earlier.” This quote to me speaks to the entire point of this article while telling the stories of so many other athletes throughout history. The fact that Friedenreich could pass as white at times, yet he was discriminated against if he slipped up and dropped his mask of “whiteness” shows the myth of racial democracy perfectly. When a player is a key member of world championships, he is not the pride of the team shows the issue with this system. Friendenreich should’ve been seen as a hero to be proud of, yet he was discriminated against to the point that it hurt the national team’s success. Having to bounce between acceptance and discrimination on such a public stage is humiliating for people, and harmful to the country’s culture. In class, we talked about how South American countries tried to be as “white” as possible and this is an example of that. This worry that a black player would harm the country of Brazil on the world stage, while they are mixed or at times passing as white, shows how harmful that goal was in these countries. It also shows how these players lost out on countless chances to promote and change the narrative. Having black players play on the biggest stages of sports changes the narrative around them, but countries excluding them globally directly harmed that across all sports. Brazil being worried about fielding black players, while they were winning championships is in my opinion ridiculous. This idea of being “white” definitely also comes from the early settlers from England who brought the sport with them, excluding locals in there exclusive clubs.