The Macaquitos Affair is an event in which White Nationalist (Argentine) attempted to create a racial separation or hierarchy between themselves and Brazilains. This was attempted in the form of a cartoon, in the sports section of a Buenos Aires newspaper. The cartoon portrayed the Brazilian team and its delegates as monkeys, some doing cartwheels while others we depicted wearing tophats. The article would even go on to state the following “If there’s one group of people that seem truly ridiculous, it’s the Brazilians. They are colored entities that try to talk like us and try to mix in with the rest of the Americans.” The article would even go on to make claims that Brazilains were inbreeding and even state that many of the military offices were produced by primitive humans. The author of the article would even be arrested for these outlandish claims and depictions. The author would also try to play the article off as a joke or an act of comedy. Basically stating that articles in the sports section were not serious and were meant to be fun, and that if it was serious it would have been in the actual newspaper.
Overall this was a very interesting article especially in understanding how sports could have been used to create these racial hierarchies and class distinctions. To me this is just really interesting as “why,” why would someone make outlandish claims like this. Especially knowing how fragile race relations were during this. I mean many of the individuals probably have experienced slavery, if not that at least someone within their family had. I also don’t understand why the editor didn’t catch this, because when you look at it seems as if they made these to cause outrage only to gain popularity toward their newspaper.
The final thing that really caught my attention was just how powerful these newspapers were during this time. Like today, especially with social media and television, something like this might be overlooked in a newspaper. I also think that it is very interesting how in other articles we see sports as a way of integration. For example soccer plays a very significant role in the integration of Jews into Argentine society. This was simply because they played and because soccer symbolizes the manliness and ruthlessness of individuals. As to here we see a way to create that racial separation or racial hierarchy.
