XVII Congress of the Brazilian Studies Association

Eugenics, Racism, and Football: The Persistent Attacks on Black Players in the 21st Century

• In Event: Fight(s) for Citizenship Rights in Brazil: Race and Gender II

Abstract

Football (“soccer”) arrived in Brazil at the end of the 19th century. From the start, it was discriminatory because Blacks were barred from playing it. At the time, when the Eugenist movement was flourishing in Europe and in the United States. Although in Brazil the movement would become strong in the 1920s, the relatively recent abolition of slavery and the resulting large population of African descent made the elite fear for the future of the country. Yet, the way the sport is played in Brazil, which has been equated to a “ballet,” is attributed to the fact that Black men would play it as if they were constantly worried, they would be expelled from the game.

Although Black players have long been accepted and celebrated, racism has not disappeared from football. If they no longer need to cover their faces with powder in order to lighten their skin in Brazil, they continue to hear racist insults. Also, the widespread presence of Brazilian players in Europe has been met with similar insults, with chants and gestures.

This paper explores the connections between racism in football, eugenics, and a turn to the far right. Far from an exception or a novelty, the racist attacks against Brazilian players in Europe express the resentment against supposedly inferior men—for being Black and foreign—who nevertheless display superior capacity in a sport that at once celebrates the Black body but has not gotten rid of the idea that Black bodies are, by definition, outsiders.

Author

• Vania Penha-Lopes, Bloomfield College of Montclair State University