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Affirmative Action and Racial Identity in Brazil: A Study of the First Quota Graduates at the State University of Rio de Janeiro

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Abstract

In 2003, the State University of Rio de Janeiro (Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro—Uerj) was one of the first Brazilian universities to admit students based on a racial and social quota system anchored in an affirmative action program. Research on a sample of quota students was undertaken in 2006–2007. This chapter examines the students’ quota options as well as their racial identities: “Black,” “Brown,” “unknown,” and “White.” While for many the formation of their racial self-classification started in their own homes, for others their racial self-classification has changed over time—especially after they entered university—by distancing themselves from the “White” and “morena” categories. Thus, quota options and racial identity are not necessarily the products of genetics but are the result of interpretations students have made of the representations of their ancestries and life histories.

This chapter is based on postdoctoral research undertaken at the Graduate Program in Social Sciences (PPGAS) at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (Uerj) in 2006–2007. The author thanks Bloomfield College for a year-long sabbatical release and a research grant, the Nucleus of Studies on Religion at PPGAS for institutional and administrative support, the School of Dentistry for permission to interview its students, the Undergraduate Sub-Rectory at Uerj for university entrance data, and the students who graciously agreed to take part in this study. Versions of this article were presented at BRASA IX, New Orleans, on March 29, 2008, at the Columbia University Seminar on Brazil, on May 8, 2008, and at State University of New York at New Paltz, on October 16, 2009.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    All translations from the Portuguese are by the author.

  2. 2.

    The present currency of Brazil is the real (plural: reais), written as R$. Portions of this chapter appeared in ``Race and Ethnic Identity Formation in Brazil and the U.S.: Three Case Studies'' (Afro-Hispanic Review 29, 2 (Fall): 251–262.

  3. 3.

    Outside of Rio de Janeiro, the State University of Bahia (Uneb) also admitted its first quota students in 2003 (Mattos 2004).

  4. 4.

    The State University of Rio de Janeiro was a pioneer in adopting the system of reservation of vacancies due to a state bill, now legislated by Law 5346/08, covering the entire state of Rio de Janeiro. The university developed the Initiation Program Academic (PROINICIAR), offering courses, workshops, and cultural activities. http://www.rj.gov.br/web/mapa/exibeconteudo?article-id=565598.

  5. 5.

    In order to maintain the anonymity of the respondents, all names are fictitious.

  6. 6.

    Preparatory schools for college entrance exams geared toward Blacks, and the poor first appeared in the 1980s as types of nongovernmental initiatives for the increase in racial inclusion at Brazilian universities (Silva 2002).

  7. 7.

    In Brazilian speech, a sarará is someone who exhibits a particular combination of European and Negroid features: White skin and blond or reddish coarse hair, green eyes, and possibly Negroid lips and nose. In the 1970s, singer-composer Gilberto Gil had a hit with Sara. A woman’s name, Sara is also a clever play with words in which he exhorts sararás to “cure” themselves (sarar) of “that Whites’ disease of wanting straight hair, already having blond hair. Hard hair is necessary so that you can be yourself, crioulo” (i.e., Black).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Bloomfield College, Bloomfield, NJ, USA

    Vânia Penha-Lopes

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  1. Vânia Penha-Lopes
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Correspondence to Vânia Penha-Lopes .

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  1. School of Social Work, Michigan State University, Baker Hall 254, East Lansing, 48824, Michigan, USA

    Ronald E. Hall

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Penha-Lopes, V. (2013). Affirmative Action and Racial Identity in Brazil: A Study of the First Quota Graduates at the State University of Rio de Janeiro. In: Hall, R. (eds) The Melanin Millennium. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4608-4_21

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