Brazil votes affirmative action for blacks and minorities in federal universities
The Brazilian Senate has approved an affirmative action bill that reserves half the spots in federal universities for high school graduates of public schools, and distributes them according to the racial makeup of each state.
The Senate’s news agency says the bill that was approved earlier this week now goes to President Dilma Rousseff, who is expected to approve it.
The reserved spots will be distributed among black, mixed race and indigenous students proportionally to the racial composition of each state, the official agency said.
Sen. Paulo Paim said the bill will benefit most Brazilian students because private schools account for just one of 10 students.
The Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that it was constitutional for universities to use racial quotas.
Brazil has more citizens of African ancestry than any nation other than Nigeria. According to the census 51% of Brazil’s 192 million people are black or of mixed-race.
Backers say the use of scholarships, quotas and other policies aimed at getting more blacks and mixed-race Brazilians into universities is needed to right the historic wrongs of slavery, centuries of stark economic inequality and a society in which whites are overwhelmingly in leadership roles in government and business.
‘‘The bill makes social justice with a majority of Brazil’s population,’’ said Senator Ana Rita. But Sen. Aloysio Nunes Ferreira voted against the bill, saying, ‘‘it straitjackets universities because it violates their management autonomy”.
Suggested Stories
-
May 21st 2013
Brazil main opposition party elects a new leader and 2014 presidential hopeful
-
May 20th 2013
Brazil opens ports to private investment hoping to ease bottlenecks strangling exports growth
-
May 20th 2013
Brazil trapped by Argentina and Venezuela economic mismanagements
-
May 15th 2013
Brazilian Finance ministry top official resigns after ten years in office
16 comments Feed
Note: Comments do not reflect MercoPress’ opinions. They are the personal view of our users. We wish to keep this as open and unregulated as possible. However, rude or foul language, discriminative comments (based on ethnicity, religion, gender, nationality, sexual orientation or the sort), spamming or any other offensive or inappropriate behaviour will not be tolerated. Please report any inadequate posts to the editor. Comments must be in English. Thank you.
This may sound like a bad idea but you have to keep in mind the severity of the situation. The coloreds in Brazil will never be able to fully participate in their countries prosperity unless they get a leg up and since no ones gonna do it, it falls on the government to take the drastic action necessary. Some better qualified students WILL miss out but tough luck its the least they could do considering the centuries of hardship these downtrodden people have endured. Hey and I'm no bleeding heart Commie, I'm a conservative but credit where credit is due. Good one Brazil.
It is also a cultural idionsicracy all over South America. Anytime somebody travels to a community in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay or another country, what you hear is always the same silly thing: instead of talking about their country´s culture, about what it means to be a brazilian or argentinian, instead of cherishing their american heritage, they start telling you how much “european” they are, they proudly repeat what has become a motto for many southamericans: “oh my grand-parents were all european and there is not a single drop of indigenous or black blood in my family”, as if somebody gave a damn about it. They only show the poor state of their cultural level.
@ 4 JoseAngeldeMonterrey: I don't know about the rest of South America but as far as I can realize by living in Brazil most of people are just mixed and darker skin you've got poorer you tend to be but also you see many rich people that in Europe would be considered non-white. So it's a little bit more complicated than “black and native people are poors and white is rich”.
Most of people doesn't realize that Brazil has a great difference when compared to USA (from where this race policy came from). Brazil has mixed couples since XVI century, mainly among the Portuguese male settlers and the female black slaves. It was pretty much common as well a Portuguese male marry a female native to make peace with her tribe, this practice was called “cunhadismo”, something like “brother-in-lawism” when the “brother-in-law natives” become friendly towards the Portuguese invaders. It's pretty much rare to see someone very white or very black in Brazil because of this very ancient mixing since half millenium ago. By travelling to Argentina and Uruguay I realized that like in Brazil, blonder you are, “whiter” you are, richer you are though you see way less brown and/or black people.
About this idiosincracy, fortunately this is changing and South Americans are realizing that they are not simply Europeans lost in the end of the world (like Argentinians used to say) but South Americans, this website is proof of it. Mercosur is a proof of it. Among other reasons, the rise of Brazil and expansion of Mercosur caused it, South Americans are discovering each other and themselves.
ALL universities should set entrance exams for ALL students who want to attend IRRESPECTIVE OF COLOUR. That would result in the best people getting the places. If they were all black, great; if they are all white, great. What matters is they will be the best there is that year.
The UK tried this nonsense at secondary level - it does not work.
Is not that outrageous? Is he better than she? Or the other way around? Both came from middle-class families.
This is to mask the very poor public education, and of course to earn some votes., nothing more.
Dont you starting to argue it is fine because they haven't acess to education, that's not the way to fix it. Indeed, it is most outrageous to have a country with regressive taxes and superior public education. This is a screwed latin-south-america thinking, where the real good people are seen as individualist and the imcompetent are worth of help.
Sorry for my english.
Things that we do not acquire with our own efforts should never be picked as a pride issue or make this a privilege. The only reason why there aren't “enough” ( how many will be enough in your account?)
is because we have a poor public educational system, and that's all, as black/mixed people are the majority in the lower classes. It's not a matter of race, it's about social equality. Do you think that the poor white deserve less? Or they have more access to superior education than the poor black? And more important, which type of skin will be considered black? Or will apply for all mixed people too?
You should take a look of the ethinic graphic of Brazil, you will see that the majority of black and mixed are settled at the northeast, north regions. European ascendency people are majority in Southeast and South, and the share of quotas are the same.
This kind of logic does not apply in Brazil, and you should be aware of that. As i said before, this is all part of a screwed thinking of our latins leaders, and a major source of our poor development. As we say here : “descobrindo um santo, para cobrir o outro”.
Please, make comments about my country, after you study a little more, and take out of you head this marxist approach.
But nothing did more for minorities than economic growth, anti-trust regulations and competitive industries and markets. It was the engine of economic growht that dictated American Express and countless firms that needed talented and capable individuals to run and operate their economic activities. It was the growth engine that did away with the absurd practice of not allowing colored persons to enter restaurants, because the new competitive markets demanded that managers and businesses accepted clients, regardless of the color of their skin, as long as they had a few pennies in their pockets to pay for the coffee or the sandwich or ice cream.
Globalization also mean that companies had to embrace diversity and multi-culturalism, they had to hire people capable of speaking other languages, different, they had to embrace tolerance and respect for each other beliefs or traditions.
As for 9 DeMouraBR
Well, your pitiful attempt at making the Europeans the victim is pathetic. It's irrelevant when the European descendants became a minority, what is all too relevant is that the “darkies” (soz) do not get a fair go, plain and simple. The europeans divi up the cake and greedily take almost all the slices. This is why this intervention is so desperately needed. Furthermore I am NOT a marxist. This measure is constitutional and as the note states you are the second country in the world with the most AFRICAN descendants after NIGERIA. No small potato my friend, suck it up you are gonna have to share.
As someone who has worked in the country on the oil terminal at Queibo I can state from personal experience that, yes, there are many races represented in the country.
There is also a strong undercurrent of racial tension, driven by religous division of the Christians (politically excluded) in the south and the Muslims (holding political power over the country) from the north.
Education does not feature in it as all children have access to junior school but have to finish at an early age (about 14) unless they are sent abroad by rich parents.
The Muslims are also murdering the Christians who, in the main, do not retaliate.
And people wonder why I am an atheist.
Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!