The soccer in the construction of the national identity: an analysis concerning the "black x white" games

Abstract

This paper aims to understand the meanings of a soccer match, between players who self-declared themselves as black or white, occurred in São Paulo on May 13th, the date commemorating the end of slavery: the game "Black x White". For this, we focused on journalistic material published by leading newspapers of São Paulo from May 10th to 15th, during 1927 and 1939, when the games were held. Additionally, a visit to the museum of the Paulista Football Federation provided the information necessary to understand the trajectory of these games. We concluded that the idealization of a game like this on "May 13th" would have the purpose not only to prevent forgetfulness and to keep alive the memory of slavery, but also to strengthen the image of a country taken as a model to be followed, with respect to the ethnic-racial subject.