Race-based affirmative action in Brazil's higher education

Abstract

This chapter provides a comprehensive view on affirmative action policies in Brazil, taking into consideration important contextual aspects such as the democratization process that the country went through starting in the 1980s, the sense of Brazilian national identity along the 20th century, the social patterns of race relations, and even the structure of public services such as education. It narrates the development of these policies since their inception in the early 2000s in the form of programs to promote the inclusion of black and low-income students in higher education, providing data about the profile of their beneficiaries, the number of vacancies created, the spread of the programs throughout Brazil’s university system, and the arguments used by the opponents of affirmative action in the public arena in their frustrated attempts to discredit it. After a brief discussion about different modalities of affirmative action and the different results obtained, the chapter also reflects about the place of affirmative action in Brazil’s democracy and the challenges that recent political developments may pose to racial inclusion in the country.