A POLICY REVIEW ON AFFIRMATIVE ACTION OF

BRAZIL

The state of Rio de Janeiro made history more than 20 years ago when it enacted Brazil's first
affirmative action laws affecting university admissions. The two state-run universities were
required by a set of laws passed between 2000 and 2001 to reserve 50% of their spots for
students who graduated from public high schools and 40% of their spots for Afro-Brazilians,
two historically underrepresented groups in Brazilian higher education. The racial quotas
were originally established in 2003 during the admissions process, which provoked vehement
resistance and a number of legal disputes over their legitimacy. Given Brazil's long history of
racial mixing, critics also questioned the practicality of defining who is white and who is
black in that nation.

Brazil abolished slavery in 1888, making it the latest nation in the hemisphere to do so,
although it never followed racial segregation practices like those used in the US or South
Africa. However, proponents of affirmative action felt that the nation had a long way to go
before eradicating its slave history. These proponents included Afro-Brazilian activists and
countless academics. They argued for the necessity for compensatory measures in university
admissions and in government hiring by pointing to the glaring disparities between blacks
and whites in terms of income, education levels, and most other human development
indicators.

President Henrique Cardoso introduced the nation's first affirmative action hiring regulations
in 2001. It was mandated that the Brazilian Ministry of Agrarian Development reserve 20%
of all new positions for Afro-Brazilians, including self-identified pretos and pardos.
However, the progressive former labour leader and president Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva's
eight years in office are when the policies really began to take off. Lula established the
Special Secretariat for the Promotion of Racial Equality shortly after taking office in January
2003.
The state universities in Rio adopted quotas in 2003. The University for All Program
(ProUni), which Lula established in 2005, then brought affirmative action practises into the
private sector, was the next step. Lula defended the actions as long overdue reparations for
historical wrongs committed against African slaves, the effects of which may still be seen in
the severe discrimination experienced by Afro-Brazilians today. "We're not helping anybody.
During a ceremony marking ProUni's inauguration, Lula said, "We are only settling a debt
that dates back 500 years”. A federal university quota law that Lula also pushed for was
eventually approved by congress under the leadership of his hand-picked successor, President
Dilma Rousseff.

Policies involving affirmative action are a part of more general global trends in higher
education policy. One trend is the massification of tertiary enrollment. Another is the
establishment of for-profit institutions. A third is the use of worldwide university rankings to
influence policy. A fourth is the development of an accountability culture. In that
environment, institutions and governments are under pressure to meet frequently conflicting
demands from industry and the government, such as: developing a globally competitive
workforce; and social demands for higher education as a mechanism for upward mobility.

The second of those demands is addressed by affirmative action programmes, which

democratise access to higher education in order to advance broader objectives of social
equality. However, there is a lot of disagreement on these programmes' ability to bring about
the intended changes in the absence of other initiatives that increase access to high-quality
elementary and secondary education. The claim that students admitted to colleges under
affirmative action policies are ill-prepared to succeed in a competitive academic environment
is one of the most common criticisms of the practise in Brazil. The quotas, according to
critics, will incite racial tensions where none previously existed.

Numerous studies that aim to assess the significance and reach of affirmative action measures
have been motivated by these considerations. These research have produced some unexpected
and counterintuitive findings. They also shed light on the challenges of enacting such
comprehensive changes in a short period of time within a higher education system that was
regarded as one of the most divisive and elite in the area.

Affirmative action in Brazil aims to eliminate racial prejudice and level the playing field by
granting historically underrepresented groups greater access to higher education. These
objectives are a part of broader initiatives to lessen stark racial and income disparities in
Brazil, which has long been ranked among the nations with the most uneven wealth
distributions. Although the laws' long-term impacts are yet uncertain, they are significantly
improving access for underprivileged groups to the nation's top colleges, which has crucial
ramifications for global attempts to democratise higher education.

REFERENCES:

A decade of affirmative action in Brazil: Lessons for the global ... - UNAM. (n.d.). Retrieved
November 17, 2022, from
https://www.ses.unam.mx/integrantes/uploadfile/mlloyd/Lloyd_ADecadeOffAffirmativ
eActionInBrazil.pdf
Dyane Brito Reis and José Raimundo Santos. (n.d.). Wins and uncertainties after 10 years of
affirmative action. NACLA. Retrieved November 17, 2022, from
https://nacla.org/affirmative-action-brazil#:~:text=When%20the%20Brazilian
%20government%20instituted,remain%20to%20ensuring%20its%20continuity.
Debates - Lasa Forum. (n.d.). Retrieved November 17, 2022, from
https://forum.lasaweb.org/files/vol44-issue2/Debates4.pdf