With the eyes of society? Doing race in affirmative action practices in Brazil

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis paper examines so-called verification commissions in Brazil that have to decide whether those who applied for affirmative action vacancies for black candidates ‘correctly’ declared themselves as such. Analyzing three repertoires through which the commissions take this decision, the paper shows how the subject that is entitled to affirmative action – the cotista (quota candidate) – comes into being in these classification practices. Discussing the tension between the idea of a social gaze – due to which ‘everybody’ knows who is black in Brazil – and that of a skilled gaze one has to learn in order to work in a verification commission, I show how the latter arises from the attempt to handle the contradictory demands the commissions are facing and how it helps to ‘objectivize’ the commissions’ decisions. By way of conclusion, I point out how my study can contribute to a better understanding of processes in which citizenship rights are granted ‘through the body’.