Education Commons^™

Affirmative Action, Brazilian-Style, Marion Lloyd

Marion Lloyd

Six years after Brazilian universities began embracing affirmative action, higher education in Brazil is no longer the domain of a mostly white elite. Since 2003 more than 1,300 institutions of higher education have adopted quotas for AfroBrazilians and graduates of public high schools. The government has also created 10 public universities and dozens of new campuses in poor areas in an effort to expand access to higher education for the underprivileged. But the debate over the quota system—racial quotas in particular—continues to inflame passions in a country that has long considered itself a racial democracy.