Soccer Brazil Race
Uploaded by ecua_enano on Apr 19, 2008
Soccer was first brought to Brazil by the English, and at first was passed on to the Brazilian elites. As time went on every class began to play this new sport. Soccer became immensely popular and widely played. Many blacks (lower/working-class) found soccer as a way to improve their oppressed lives. On the other hand the whites (upper-class) found it as a way control the threatening lower-class energy. This view of the upper-class led them to create a commercialized soccer, in order to get the masses to play, in a way that ensured social tranquility. (This was both Liberating and Restricting.) Soccer seemed to serve the interests of every type of person. Soccer clubs were eventually formed to represent the “barrio” or district that people came from. These established teams played with a rubber ball, and made their own uniforms. For the poor these soccer clubs became a way of life, people made close friends during work and made the friendship stronger on the soccer field. The game of soccer to these people represented their lives and the hardships that they faced. This is exemplified in the idea of a “Picardia” or person who is quick witted and doesn’t get kicked or hit. It showed that a lower-class person opposed to power had to weaken it or wear it out. There was a huge progression in the sport of soccer; in the beginning it represented “a material sacrifice, not a material reward.” Poor players could feel things that they had never experienced before. They were still poor, but soccer made them feel valuable, like Gods. The crowd loved the players and cheered for them. In the 1920s more tangible rewards were given to these skilled soccer players. The rich factory owners who watched the games and saw the players skills, decided to form their own teams. Soccer allowed the lower-class to obtain jobs, as long as they played for the factory team. Here they got to play a sport that they loved, have a job and earned money. These factory teams also formed bonds between the workers, managers and owners. The only downside was that it created a division among the working-class, because these people used the sport and the players to benefit themselves. Soccer became a way of escaping the burden of everyday life, as well as escaping the oppression by the upper-class. In the...