The Brazilian Law of Racial Quotas put to the test of labor justice: a legal case against Banco do Brasil

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article discusses Brazil’s affirmative action policies of racial quotas. It explores the reasoning behind such policies as well as the arguments advanced by their main critics. After presenting the policies’ origins, their concerns about the beneficiaries, and the specificities of the Law of Racial Quotas in Federal Public Service, the authors deconstruct the legal case of Carlos Delano de Araújo Brandão versus Banco do Brasil, taken from the area of labor justice. The case involved the application of racial quotas to fill positions in the federal public service sector and has gained national prominence because it continues to be a model or standard for the implementation of affirmative action and the Law of Racial Quotas. Its examination allows the contextualization and discussion of the most commonly used justifications for rejecting such policies. The article concludes that, despite their years of existence in Brazil, affirmative action policies continue to face obstacles that prevent their full application and limit their effectiveness.