Confronting Affirmative Action in Brazil

University Quota Students and the Quest for Racial Justice

Vânia Penha-Lopes

• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Year: 2017
• eBook ISBN: 9798216296300
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Multicultural Education
• Index: Social Sciences

Using affirmative action to decrease racial inequality is the latest chapter of a long tradition of comparing Brazil and the United States with regard to race. Confronting Affirmative Action in Brazil: University Quota Students and the Quest for Racial Justice is timely for both countries as they struggle with racial justice in higher education. This book responds to the United States' dismantling of affirmative action programs and a belief that they have run their course. Data show that, while affirmative action policies have contributed to a significant increase in the representation of non-Whites in the U.S. middle class, other segments of the population have yet to take full advantage of such policies. In Brazil, this book engaged with the need to understand the first results of a public policy expected to promote major social change, as it represents the first time that country admitted the existence of racial inequality in its core and took measures toward combating it despite any subsequent controversy or dissent.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 History in the Making
• 2 The Students
• 3 University Quotas and Racial Identity
• 4 Attitudes Toward the Quota Policies
• 5 An Overview of the Performance of Quota Students at Brazilian Universities
• Conclusion
• References
• Index
• About the Author