Challenges of Identification and Inclusion in Affirmative Action for Blacks in Brazil

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Unlike the U.S. with its rule of hypodescent, unequal social and economic status in Brazil is partly a function of how others see you. Darker-skinned Brazilians with visible African features, such as skin color and hair, are the ones most severely affected by anti-black racism. In the last fifteen years, anti-racism promoted racial quotas in higher education and government hiring in order to offset racial stratification. In some cases, the racial quota system requires auto-identification only whereas in other cases it also requires hetero-identification by a verification committee. The verification committees were established to counter racial fraud in which non-black Brazilians claimed “blackness” based on ancestry to further their careers through the quota system. Both government officials and black movement activists have been influential in the implementation of the committees to decide on the eligibility of affirmative action applicants. Candidates are interviewed by a panel with black movement activists and institutional staff who verify that candidates are black and qualify for the quota system. The fundamental questions we want to explore in this panel are: (1) How are blackness and black identities formed in the context of the Brazilian quota system and the verification committees? (2) In what ways have the Brazilian quota system and the verification committees caused the renegotiation of long-held racial categories in Brazil? (3) Do the Brazilian quota system and the verification committees have the potential to promote racial justice in Brazil? (4) What challenges do the Brazilian quota system and the verification committees have to confront?

Sub Track

• Afro-Latin/Indigenous Peoples

Session Organizers

• Antonio J Bacelar da Silva, University of Arizona

• Dalila F Negreiros

Chair

• Antonio J Bacelar da Silva, University of Arizona

Discussant

• Sales A dos Santos, Departamento de Ciências Sociais (DCS) / Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV)

Individual Presentations

• Who can be Black for Affirmative Action Programs in Brazil? - Antonio J Bacelar da Silva, University of Arizona

• Not Everyone is Black: Fraud Prevention in Brazilian Affirmative Action Programs - Dalila F Negreiros

• Are Race-Conscious Affirmative Action Programs in Brazil Constructing a New Concept of Race? - Allyne Andrade e Silva, USP / University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)