According to an ecstatic article headlined “Brazil’s Supreme Court upholds affirmative action in universities” in New York City’s Amsterdam News, “Brazil’s Supreme Court has confirmed the nation’s establishment of university quotas to promote educational opportunities for Afro Brazilians.”
Back in 2004, the Universidade de Brasilia (UnB) created a quota program designed to reserve 20 percent of its admission slots for Afro Brazilians, mixed-race and indigenous students. The school even took photographs of Black applicants and had those photos judged by a secret panel to determine if a UnB applicant was truly, phenotypically of African descent.
However, Sen. Demosthenes Torres and his right-wing Democratas Party, who argue that quotas violate the nation’s principle of racial equality, challenged the UnB quota system. Another noted challenge has been brought by a student against the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), who was not able to enter the school, he said, because his admission slot had been taken by a person of color. The UFRGS reserves 30 percent of its admission slots for students who attend public high schools, and one half of that 30 percent is set aside for students of color.
Brazil may have little to teach us, however, since our affirmative action is so different. Far from being so forthright, here we go to great lengths to disguise the fact that the “critical mass” of minorities we seek has anything to do with dreaded quotas. And we would never require photographs of black (or self-described Cherokee) applicants in order to determine if they were “truly, phenotypically of African descent.” Instead, we trust secret panels in admissions offices to reach that determination by reading “holistic” essays of overcoming hardship.
