Affirmative action and liberal thought in Brazil: an aborted proposal

• In Event: Public Discrimination

Abstract

In 1964 a military coup ended the Brazilian democratic experience of the postwar period. Within the transitional government that followed, anchored in an alliance between the military and the liberal right, the first attempt to recognize the existence of systematic racial discrimination in the country emerged. In November 1968, shortly before the military broke their liberal commitment and institutionalized an authoritarian military regime, a project emerged to implement affirmative action measures to reverse the effects of discrimination. Using mainly documents from the period, I analyze the political moment that allowed affirmative action to be proposed, and its subsequent rejection by the armed forces, which transformed 'racial democracy' into an official ideology of the regime. I analyze mainly the social forces that anchored the proposal of affirmative action, and those who reacted and aborted its discussion.

Author

• Antonio Sérgio A Guimarães, Universidade de São Paulo