Policy and ideology collide: an examination of Affirmative Action for students of Brazilian public higher education

Abstract

ABSTRACT Following months of debate in 2012, Brazilian President Rousseff signed the Quota Law establishing quotas for the percentages of Black, Brown, and indigenous public secondary school students that public universities must enroll. Guided by a social dominance theory framework, this paper examines the extent to which such a policy can challenge an ideology – racial democracy – that legitimizes inequality. Using secondary data, I evaluate the main arguments made by the policy’s detractors against empirical research on the academic and diversity impacts of affirmative action in public universities in Brazil. How has a deeply entrenched myth of racial democracy influenced the implementation of a policy that centers racial ideology? Answers to this question have implications for better understanding: (1) the role policy can play in disrupting inequality and humanizing marginalized people and (2) how, if at all, evidence supporting equitable policy can disrupt a society’s adherence to a dominant ideology.