Racism, Social Inequality and the Implementation of Affirmative Action in Universities: The Brazilian Context

• In Event: 106 - Open Refereed Roundtable Session I
  In Refereed Roundtable: A. Table 05. Education: International

Abstract

For the last decade, Brazilian universities have implemented affirmative action policies aiming at the inclusion of more people of color, who have been historically underrepresented in higher education. These policies have created great controversies given the Brazilian context of miscegenation and “the myth of a racial democracy” proposing the belief that race does not play a role in the hierarchies of social arrangements in Brazil. Affirmative action policies have raised the questions of who is Black, who is “of color,” and is it right for national policies to make these decisions based on these blurred boundaries? This piece examines the advantages and disadvantages of affirmative action as a tool to fight social inequality in the Brazilian context.

Author

• Beatriz Arcoverde de Oliveira, University of British Columbia