Nikki's Project: Affirmative Action & Backlash

My First Video Blog

Brazil, having only recently implemented race conscious remedies appears to be in a similar position as the United States during the Civil Rights Movement. At the same time, in the United States, race conscious remedies have become anathema to many, and in some states, illegal. Colorblindness has become the word of the day, leaving a stage for racial inclusion work that looks like a page out of Brazil’s past regime of racial democracy. At this historical moment the Unites States and Brazil appear to be at in ironic temporal crossroads, making the comparative study of affirmative action in the two nations informative, and hopefully transformative, for students, lawyers, activists, and progressive minds across disciplines in both.

In my seminar paper, I explored the ways in which both the United States and Brazil have, and are using affirmative action as a mechanism to further anti-subordination goals. One of the things that the United States Civil Rights Movement did not do adequately was to anticipate the backlash and attendant arguments against affirmative action that would eventually materialize to be used to attack these programs and to isolate and alienate its intended beneficiaries. Brazil is already facing backlash against affirmative action policies. White students have already filed their first anti-affirmative action lawsuits, demanding admission and claiming that they have been denied their places in the public universites because of racial quotas. Only two years after implementing a 40% set-aside for Black and Brown students Rio de Janeiro’s public universites, the legislature has already amended the policy. In a move that eerily reflects American colorblindness, the 40% quota for people of African decent has been reduced to 20% for Blacks (as opposed to Blacks and Brown), 20% for students who attended public schools, and 5% for students with disabilites.

I am generally interested access to education and the terms upon which it is denied or granted; lost or garnered by black and brown people in the struggle for racial justice and inclusion as it has played out through affirmative action polices and the related discourse. My field study will focus on the nature and effects of the backlash against affirmative action in higher education, and the ways that the arguments for and against affirmative action framed.

My research questions are:

1. What is the nature of the backlash against affirmative action?
2. How are the arguments for and against affirmative action framed?
3. What, if any, affect does this backlash have on student beneficiaries of affirmative action as they try to navigate their education?

Stay Tuned.....