On Sunday, Argentina won the 2022 World Cup against France, and while many have celebrated the FIFA sporting event a recent Washington Post article has asked, “Why doesn’t Argentina have more Black players in the World Cup?”
The opinion piece, written by Erika Denise Edwards, claimed viewing the Argentinian soccer team could give the wrong idea about the racial makeup of the country. She said, the “idea of Argentina as a White nation [is] inaccurate, it clearly speaks to a longer history of Black erasure at the heart of the country’s self-definition.”
“As fans keep up with Argentina’s success in this year’s World Cup, a familiar question arises: Why doesn’t Argentina’s team have more Black players?,” Edwards opened. Edwards, who is an associate professor of colonial Latin American history and Latin American studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, dives into what she describes as “myths” that Argentinians use to explain their national soccer team’s “lack of black representation.”
“I have no idea why the Washington Post had to lay off all those workers this week,” Human Events’ Jack Posobiec said, referencing the announcement of downsizing made by the publication’s CEO last Wednesday morning.
I have no idea why the Washington Post had to lay off all those workers this week pic.twitter.com/nl6EbEWSDY
— New Pillows New Slippers (@JackPosobiec) December 18, 2022
“Sorry, @WashingtonPost, it turns out Argentina’s sinister plot of hiring the best players instead of the most diverse players has won them the World Cup!,” he said in a follow-up tweet after the Latin American country won the championship.
“Argentina won the World Cup! Congratulations. But that’s racist according to the Washington Post because they have not enough black players on their team,” said Ian Miles Cheong.
Sorry, @WashingtonPost, it turns out Argentina's sinister plot of hiring the best players instead of the most diverse players has won them the World Cup!
— New Pillows New Slippers (@JackPosobiec) December 18, 2022
“Argentina won the World Cup! Congratulations. But that’s racist according to the Washington Post because they have not enough black players on their team,” said Ian Miles Cheong.
Argentina won the World Cup! Congratulations. But that’s racist according to the Washington Post because they have not enough black players on their team. pic.twitter.com/42VcXAtOha
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) December 18, 2022
In an original version of the article, Edwards claimed that black Argentinians made up one percent of the population, which is overstated, according to census data. The Washington Post later issued a correction, acknowledging that black Argentinians make up “actually far less than one percent” of the country’s total population.
The Washington Post opinion piece complaining that there are no black players on Argentina’s team has been corrected after the fact, to note that “far less than 1%” of the Argentine population is black. https://t.co/G7B5BO8LJO pic.twitter.com/kSBhjTRoV9
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) December 12, 2022
According to the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos in Mexico, the nation of Argentina is 85 percent white, or of European heritage, which is significantly greater than the United State’s proportion of white citizens, who make up just 57.8 percent of the population.
Edwards said that historical observations over slavery in Argentina such as black men and women dying from war and bondage are myths. She also claimed it was a myth that the mixed-race demographics of Argentina, produced from multiple ethnicites procreating over decades, was a valid explanation for the relatively small black population.
“These and other myths about black ‘disappearance’ in Argentina serve to obscure several of the nation’s most enduring historical legacies,” Edwards argued.
While Edwards argued fringe theories on “black erasure” others focused more on the nature of atheltics as a “natural unifier.”
“Asians make up 5.6 percent of the U.S. population and are underrepresented in athletics. Must be racism?,” said another commenter. “These stories should be tossed and sports is a natural unifier. Does anyone care what skin color Mbappé or Messi have?”
It was poorly written, but I kind of see what she was getting at. She was asking a historical question: why does a country that once had large numbers of African slaves have a greater Black population?
— Matt Mulligan 🌐 (@mullymt) December 12, 2022
Story cited here.
