One thing that I was very much aware of was the racism and classism present in the early 1900s in South American Countries like Brazil. Consequently, I had also been very well aware of the way in which sports served as a form of class mobility that the article talked about. However, I was not really aware of the idea of players whitewashing themselves to help bolster their reputation in soccer. This was most apparent to me while reading the section about Francisco Carregal when they talked about Carlos Alberto and Domingos da Guia. The fact that such players felt it necessary to conceal who they were and try to masquerade as white as they could in order to see any sort of success is a sad indictment of the racial dynamics of the time period. But alas it makes sense when I look at many of the other quotes about race from the Brazillian elites such as, “‘Black Race in Brazil… will always constitute one of the factors of our inferiority as a people.’” By using such all-encompassing language like the phrase “always constitute” and also by generalizing the entire black race of Brazil the elites are creating this heavy burden on the idea of blackness in Brazil. Because of this, I don’t think I can really blame the Black players for trying to conceal their blackness. The other thing that I did not know about relates to how the Arthur Friedenreich section talked about his experiences with the Brazilian national team. At first, I found myself really happy reading his story of triumph as he was able to play a big role in the team’s success. However, I found myself feeling quite saddened and surprised when reading about the way that he was excluded from the team in the future due to his race. One quote from the article that I feel really captured that essence said, “ 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.” Seeing here the sense of acknowledgment of the importance he had to their victory really worked to make the situation feel all the more sad. And the fact that it was done out of this sense of national presentation and that bringing black players would “reflect poorly on Brazil” shows how deeply rooted racism was during the time period.
