Confronting Affirmative Action in Brazil: University Quota Students and the Quest for Racial Justice

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

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.

Reviews

Confronting Affirmative Action in Brazil is a masterful examination of social processes surrounding affirmative action in Brazil as they have unfolded on the ground and in real time...Penha-Lopes study will be an invaluable resource for English readers, particularly comparative race scholars who focus on the Americas with an interest in race relations in Brazil and the United States. -- G. Reginald Daniel, University of California, Santa Barbara, co-editor of Race and the Obama Phenomenon: The Vision of a More Perfect Multiracial Union
Vnia Penha-Lopess book is a path-breaking analysis of contemporary affirmative action programs in Brazilian universities. Written in a clear, accessible style, Dr. Penha-Lopes focuses on a recent cohort of graduates of one of these programs. She analyzes these students lived experiences as well as their attitudes towards the programs and concludes that, contrary to the expectations of some of the programs detractors, these quota students, for the most part, have done as well academically as their non-quota peers. -- Maxine L. Margolis, Professor Emerita of Anthropology, University of Florida
Confronting Affirmative Action in Brazil is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding how race is constructed and experienced in Brazil and how endemic racism is currently being challenged. -- James N. Green, Director, Brown-Brazil Initiative, Brown University, Carlos Manuel de Cspedes Professor of Modern Latin American History

Author Bio

Vnia Penha-Lopes is professor of sociologyat Bloomfield College.