Affirmative Action in Brazil: What's it All About?

For my research project I strive to better understand the concept of affirmative action, as it currently exists in Brazilian society. The myth of racial democracy that has so long been legitimized in Brazil provides an image of racial harmony that masks over racial segregation, reducing the race issue to one of class conflict, which typically results in attempts to resolve the issue through race neutral income distribution policies. With the introduction and adoption of affirmative action policies in Brazil, the public debate has taken a shift in tone to reflect viewpoints standing in opposition to racial democracy.

I would like to conduct my research in the cities of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paolo, and Salvador in Brazil on current understandings and perceptions of affirmative action, focusing in particular on education at the university level. My hypothesis supposes that the more people believe in the myth of racial democracy, the less they believe in racial barriers and thus, in the need for affirmative action. To test this theory, I aim to interview current students and administrators to get at the various interpretations of racial discrimination that are offered up. Putting my findings together, I’d like to assess where the affirmative action project resides and find ways to reframe the debate from that of a necessary evil, to one of positive policy.

Compared to affirmative action policies in the United States, or lack thereof, my hypothesis latches onto the color-blind politics that are in direct opposition to the implementation of affirmative action policies that are based on race. In the United States, affirmative action is currently illegal in three states and the popularity of such initiatives is increasingly starting to dwindle. In the state of California (one of the three states) alone, since the passage of Proposition 209, the number of minority students in higher education has significantly dropped, calling into question the intersectional link between race and class. Arguments opposed to race-based affirmative action policies tend to favor reform in the K-12 education levels. However, even after the diminution of race-based affirmative action policies in the aforementioned states, little effective reform has been made.

The inspiration for the particular focus of my project stems from a quote I stumbled upon in a 2003 issue of The Economist, where a Brazilian named Jose Vicente was quoted saying, “Brazilian racism is like a gun at the back of the head rather than one pointed between the eyes.” As I pondered about the meaning of his words, I was only further compelled to unravel the ways in which racism affects Afro-Brazilians everyday, and further, I was moved to use this information to unravel the myth of racial democracy, which I feel works to keep affirmative action policies from fully being embraced.