AFFIRMATIVE ACTION DEBATE GRIPS BRAZIL
Politicians want it; most citizens don't
JANUARY 2, 2002
BY PATRICE M. JONES
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Some Brazilian
lawmakers and top government officials favor
adopting affirmative action programs, including
racial quotas in employment and university
admissions, in a bid to alleviate discrimination. This
has sparked a national debate.
Much of society in South
America's most populous
nation has long prided
itself on Brazil's touted "racial democracy" in which
tolerance and respect are
believed to be the glue that
holds together a multihued
country despite wide
economic
disparities
between blacks and
whites. But a number of
developments — from last
summer's United Nations
conference on racism to a
tor r ent of depressing
statistics about the status
of Afro-Brazilians — are
chipping away at the long-cherished image of racial harmony in Brazil.
"We are politically invisible", said Joaquim Barbosa Gomes, a Federal Prosecutor who published
a book on Affirmative Action. "The reason AfroBrazilians are just starting to talk about affirmative
action decades after the U.S. did is because the
state of most blacks in Brazil is similar to the
conditions of blacks in the U.S. in the 1950s prior
to the civil rights movement," Gomes added.
In fact, many Brazilians say the prescription of
affirmative action was tailor-made for U.S.
conditions not those in Brazil — a country with such
a lengthy past of miscegenation and complicated
feelings over race that a 1998 census found more
than 300 descriptions for skin color.
Still there is little doubt about a growing wave
iof research that points to disproportionate levels
of unemployment, illiteracy and even infant
mortality among black Brazilians.
But the biggest hurdle for affirmative action policies, particularly quotas, is that many Brazilians,
both black and white, oppose the idea.
The major objection to quotas that focus on
hiring and university placement is that many
Brazilians say they believe the foundation of
opportunities in a society is not admission to a
university, but education beginning at the
elementary school level.
"Providing quotas in universities will alleviate a
certain amount of societal guilt, but it will not help
students if they don't finish because they are not
prepared for college," said Alder Catunda, an
archjtect and professor at the Federal University
of Rio de Janeiro. "We have to change the entire
education system."
Others disagree. "I think quotas would give a
more democratic composition to universities," said
Michelle Cabral, a 27-year-old university student
from Rio de Janeiro. "Brazil sells the farce of a
happy, multiracial country but it is not true. We need
to take the mask off of this problem."
So far, lawmakers have only focused on
discussing ways of increasing the number of black
students admitted to colleges and universities, and
there has been no discussion of Brazil's range of
racial categories, which would make determining
who is eligible for affirmative action programs
difficult.
Many members of Congress and others in
government are pushing the issue, but many
ordinary Brazilians say the wider problem is that
the country's public education system is plagued
by poor teacher pay, inadequate training and scant
resources.
ADAPTED
FROM: HTTP://WWW.FREEP.COM/NEWS/NW/BRAZII2_20020102.HTM
INSTRUÇÕES PARA A PRÓXIMA QUESTÃO
1 -RESPONDA SEMPRE DE ACORDO COM O TEXTO.
2 -USE RESPOSTAS CLARAS OBJETIVAS E COMPLETAS.
3 -RESPONDA A QUESTÃO 4 EM PORTUGUÊS; RESPOSTAS EM INGLÊS NÃO SERÃO ACEITAS PARA
ESTA QUESTÃO.
Based on the text, why do Brazilians say that
the U.S. Affirmative Action formula is not
appropriate in Brazil?
Resolução:
De acordo com o texto muitos brasileiros afirmam que a adoção da ação afirmativa foi feita
sob medida para a realidade americana e não para
as condições brasileiras.