The Katherine Massey Book Club @ The C.O.W.S. hosts the debut 5th study session on Mário Filho's 1947 The Black Man in Brazilian Soccer, translated to English by Jack A. Draper III. Brazilian football (soccer) legend Pelé died near the end of 2022 at the age of 82. The only player to win 3 World Cup Championships and voted "Athlete of the 20th Century" according to many White journalists and historians, Pelé is classified as black and was born in 1940, a measly 52 years after Brazil abolished formal enslavement of black people in 1888. Racists didn't even allow black people to play football/soccer in Brazil for many decades. We'll learn about the System of White Supremacy in South America and one of the greatest athletes of any sport. The ugly violence and hooliganism following former President Jair Bolsonaro's electoral defeat is still being investigated while Brazil's ex-commander remains on sabbatical in Florida - prepping for spring break apparently. Last week we learned how professional soccer players got younger as the practice time required to play well increased. White Men bragged about having leisure time and flexible scheduling to play ball games. Filho also described how a "mulatto with squinty eyes," Alfredo China, would violently discipline the "street urchins" for playing fútbol near the catholic church. There was an extremely graphic passage where Alfredo China is said to have delighted in using his knife to castrate the big, black, leather soccer balls. The homoeroticism of the text drips from each paragraph as Filho details how many of the non-white soccer players slept on the floor of the club house because they had no wear else to go. White players would "sleep over" frat-style only after a "bender" - they had a comfortable bed in the waiting. This sort of spartan existence resulted in a disproportionate number of non-white players contracting tuberculosis (TB). This illness remains a problem for black and non-white people in the favelas of Brazil and North America today. #Rio #WhiteBallGames #TheCOWS14 INVEST in The COWS – http://paypal.me/TheCOWS Cash App: https://cash.app/$TheCOWS CALL IN NUMBER: 605.313.5164 CODE 564943#