Why doesn’t Argentina have more Black players in the World Cup?
I know the article title is inflammatory, but give it a second! I only note that it's from 2022, citing situations from even further back, which is my way of showing that this isn't a "brand new" conversation being held because of this recent World Cup.
So, in looking more into the author of the book we're gonna read by Dr. Erika Denise Edwards, @toiletpotato found some really good articles for me to read from a Reddit AMA she was a part of and sent them to me!
And what's crazy to me is, reading all of this... I'm starting to feel like this entire argument has been kind of pointless because we weren't (fully) disagreeing with each other. I mean, I'm definitely seeing the "myths" part about why the Black population decreased so drastically, so I admit I see what (SOME of) y'all were saying. That was misinformation.
But I'm also still seeing how there was a societal, systemic effort by the Argentinian government to shift the country towards (the facade of) European Whiteness. Of putting it in the Constitution to encourage European immigration. Of how 1/3rd of an entire population still "became" less than 1%. Of the expectation that "you'll have to go to Brazil to find Black people".
"But White Argentine leaders such as Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, ex-president of Argentina (1868-1874), crafted a different narrative to erase Blackness because they equated modernity with whiteness. Sarmiento wrote “Facundo: Civilization and Barbarism” (1845), which detailed Argentina’s “backwardness” and what he and others perceived as the need to become “civilized.” He was among those who shared a vision for the nation that associated it more strongly with European, rather than African or Amerindian, heritage.
Argentina abolished slavery in 1853 in most of the country and in 1861 in Buenos Aires. With its history of slavery behind it, Argentina’s leaders focused on modernization, looking to Europe as the cradle of civilization and progress. They believed that to join the ranks of Germany, France and England, Argentina had to displace its Black population — both physically and culturally.
In many ways, this was not unique to Argentina. This whitening process was attempted throughout much of Latin America, in places such as Brazil, Uruguay and Cuba.
What makes Argentina’s story unique in this context, however, is that it was successful in its push to build its image as a White country."
Or this part, of how it would benefit Black people (who could) to shed that identity and "become white" for legal purposes and benefits. And if not, to become an Other rather than be Black-
"As for the nation’s Black and Amerindian populations who were in Argentina before this mass European immigration, many began to strategically identify as White if they could “pass” or to settle into more ambiguous racial and ethnic categories.
These categories included criollo (pre-immigrant background often affiliated with Spanish or Amerindian ancestry), morocho (tan-colored), pardo (brown-colored) and trigueño (wheat-colored). While these labels ultimately cast them as “Others,” they also helped dissociate them from blackness at a time when that was a state imperative."
Again, to ME, these are signs of a deliberate cultural genocide, that "yeah I'm here but I have to say I'm anything other than Black". But mayhaps they just... Don't feel that way? I still have questions. And this time, we're gonna read the book together and find out.
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