In 2022, Law No. 12,711/2012 (the Quota Law) turned ten years old, and a climate of uncertainty surrounding its review was constant, due to the political and institutional instability that characterized that context.
To fill the gap in the evaluation of quota policy, the Consortium for Monitoring Affirmative Actions was created as a collaboration between research centers — Gemaa and Afro Cebrap — which together produced data and analyses on quota policy in Brazilian higher education. The research systematized the accumulated academic knowledge on the achievements and challenges of the policy, drawing on specialized literature and quantitative and qualitative case studies from different universities.
The research resulted in the book “The Impact of Quotas: Two Decades of Affirmative Action in Brazilian Higher Education,” organized by Marcia Lima and Luiz Augusto Campos. The work presents the main questions surrounding the topic, such as: “Did the quotas actually change the socioeconomic profile of universities?”, “How do quota students perform academically?”, and “Have inclusion policies had positive impacts beyond the university environment?”
Taking advantage of the book’s recent launch — a milestone in the systematization of evidence and in the consortium’s work as a response to the absence of robust data on affirmative action — Ibirapitanga spoke with Marcia Lima, general coordinator and researcher at Afro-Cebrap, who answered questions about the concrete impacts and effects of quota policy, the role of the Black movement, and the contest of narratives around the debate on affirmative action in Brazil.
Instituto Ibirapitanga: The book “The Impact of Quotas: Two Decades of Affirmative Action in Brazilian Higher Education,” which you organized together with Luiz Augusto Campos, offers an overview of affirmative action policies, particularly in Brazilian universities, revealing a country before and after quotas, as Sueli Carneiro mentions on the back cover. What is the relevance of publishing this book in the current context?
Marcia Lima: In 2023, the National Congress approved the revision of the Higher Education Quota Law and has just extended and approved the new text of the Public Service Quota Law. This is a moment of institutional strengthening of two significant public policies for addressing racial inequalities in access to opportunities. The book empirically demonstrates how affirmative actions grew and strengthened within public higher education institutions even before Law 12,711. We argue in the book that the enactment of the law in August 2012 constitutes one of the phases of consolidation of the policy, and we highlight the importance of other public policies that were crucial to its success — among them, REUNI, the Support Program for Restructuring and Expansion Plans of Federal Universities. This program expanded the number of higher education institutions, created campuses in the interior of the country, and one of the eligibility criteria for institutions was the adoption of some model of affirmative action.
Instituto Ibirapitanga: It is important to remember that the book is the result of a research effort by the Consortium for Monitoring Affirmative Actions. What gaps in data and knowledge did the Consortium aim to fill?
Marcia Lima: The Quota Law had originally established the need to organize an evaluation of affirmative action in higher education by 2022. In other words, the law itself provided for a review that should be based on assessments. Given that the Jair Bolsonaro government had already given clear signs of weakening public higher education as a whole, and showed no appreciation for racial quotas, no official effort was made to evaluate the policy or to provide elements for discussing whether or not it needed to be revised. The idea for the Consortium arose from the need to produce an assessment from the university community about its impacts. It was important to have information about the impact of quotas in the year of their review. The Consortium was a way of producing autonomous and methodologically sound evaluations of racial affirmative action, based on specialized empirical research.
Instituto Ibirapitanga: Considering the public debate against affirmative action aimed at addressing racial inequalities just over two decades ago, what were the main hypotheses about quotas that were not confirmed by the studies gathered in the book?
Marcia Lima: I believe that one of the great transformations that the debate on affirmative action — and quota policies in particular — brought to Brazil was precisely the fact that today we speak about race and racism in our daily lives. We no longer have a taboo around discussing racial issues. I always think of Oracy Nogueira, in the text where he references the expression “in a hanged man’s house, one does not speak of rope” — referring to the perceived impropriety of raising the topic of race in Brazil.
Regarding affirmative action policies, the main criticism was an expectation that these students would not be able to keep up with undergraduate courses. The book includes studies showing that this did not materialize to the expected degree, and I think that is a very significant point. No one is denying the difficulties these students face — in fact, if those difficulties did not exist, the policy would not be necessary. They enter with a performance gap at the time of admission to university, but that gap between quota and non-quota students narrows over the course of their training. This is very interesting because it also speaks to the effort and dedication of these students. Access to this opportunity transforms how these students approach and engage with their education.
Instituto Ibirapitanga: In the book’s introduction, you state that “the quota policy in higher education transformed one of the most elite spaces in Brazilian society.” How would you describe this transformation? Are there other impacts beyond the broadening of class and racial diversity?
Marcia Lima: Although the topic of racial quotas has dominated the public debate, it is important to keep in mind that the Quota Law, passed in 2012, addressed admission to federal universities and federal technical secondary education institutions. The first article of the law guarantees the reservation of at least 50% of places for students who completed their entire secondary education in public schools. The income and race criteria were applied within this reserved portion. I raise this again because this aspect is fundamental for understanding the magnitude of this transformation. The Quota Law changes the place and the size of the Brazilian elite within the public university — a space and a destination long considered a given for its members. The impact of changes in terms of race and class is therefore not only numerical, but symbolic. It promoted debate about the presence of Black faculty, about the authors studied, about research topics, as well as debates about other markers such as gender, sexuality, territory, and disability.
Instituto Ibirapitanga: You also point to the late 1990s as a period of melancholy, following a decade of intense Black movement mobilization but with little progress from the federal government on the racial agenda. You then note that the Black movements’ investment in organizing for the Durban Conference created a favorable post-conference climate for the adoption of quotas in Brazilian universities. In the current context, what strategies might generate a favorable climate for advances in policies addressing racial inequalities, in your view?
Marcia Lima: First, I think that in Brazilian society today we have a fairly favorable environment for quota policy. I do not see significant resistance from Brazilian society to this debate — many opinion polls have demonstrated this for some time now. The unfavorable climate exists within decision-making bodies, and that has been quite difficult. I held the position of Secretary for Affirmative Action Policy and Combating Racism, and during my time in government I was responsible for negotiating the revision of the Higher Education Quota Law and the renewal of the Public Service Quota Law. It was not an easy process. We have a quite conservative Congress, and it took many negotiations and many conversations to be able to pass the text. We had to modify the text of both the higher education and the public service quota policies. It was a long negotiation. But in truth, Brazil today does not have a favorable climate for any progressive debate. We are seeing what is happening in the National Congress — especially in the Chamber of Deputies, which I think is considerably worse than the Senate. Progress on affirmative action is happening in the Executive and Judicial branches, which have been providing the legal foundation for these policies.
Instituto Ibirapitanga: Still thinking about these strategies, we have a very recent lesson — the capacity that Black movements built to secure the passage of the new Quota Law. What role did the Black movement play in the passage of this law?
Marcia Lima: Regarding the role of the Black movement, I believe its work is essential in all achievements on the racial agenda. This has been a historic demand of the Black movement since at least the Brazilian Black Front. The book addresses this primarily when it presents the history of affirmative action in the institutions studied. It has always been a demand accompanied by concrete proposals for ensuring Black people’s access to education. This debate would not exist in Brazil were it not for the work of the Black movement, of Black intellectuals, and of people committed to anti-racism and to building a more proactive agenda in relation to how we confront the question of racial inequalities. Political movements within universities — the student movement, the Black movement — were also very important.
Instituto Ibirapitanga: What changed with the new law? Where is further progress still needed?
Marcia Lima: The passage of the new law resulted from interministerial work involving the Ministry of Racial Equality, the Ministries of Education, Indigenous Peoples, and Human Rights and Citizenship, as well as intensive coordination with Congress, led by the rapporteur, Representative Dandara Tonantzin (PT-MG), and Senator Paulo Paim (PT-RS). The new text reduced the family income threshold for participation in quotas from 1.5 minimum wages to one minimum wage per capita. It also added quilombola communities to the beneficiaries of reserved places, which already included Black, mixed-race, and Indigenous people, as well as people with disabilities. Quota students will now compete first for general places and will only compete for reserved places if they are not ranked within the general pool. The quota thus ceases to be a ceiling and becomes a floor. The new text establishes priority for quota students in scholarships and student financial aid, prioritizes students with a per capita income of up to one minimum wage (previously 1.5 minimum wages) for 50% of quota places, and also provides legal guarantees for affirmative action in graduate programs at Brazilian federal higher education institutions.
Instituto Ibirapitanga: To close, we would like to cite another reference from the book, looking at current challenges. Today, Brazilian society debates racial issues extensively — a result of what you, Marcia, and Luiz Augusto Campos describe in the book as a break with the racial etiquette of the pre-quota era, when discussing the topic was not considered socially appropriate. There are still sectors that resist acknowledging racism and its effects. What practices are important for ensuring that Brazilian society does not yield to pressure from these sectors and does not regress in breaking with racial etiquette? Given the evidence, what is needed to broaden support for policies that will put an end to racial inequalities in Brazil?
Marcia Lima: I think we need to continue denouncing racism; we need public and private institutions to commit to creating ways of confronting everyday racism in the workplace, in schools and universities, and especially in the justice system. Although some institutions within the Judiciary have made great strides on affirmative action, the situation of Black people in the justice system represents the most brutal aspect of Brazilian racism. Public security, the prison system, and the courts of justice are enormous obstacles to racial justice. Equally important is having an ever-growing number of voices that take public positions on these issues. I think we need people who stand out in the public debate — people with national and international recognition in their fields — to speak out and take a stand against the cases of racial violence that occur in Brazil. Racism and its consequences must be a topic that concerns and occupies all Brazilians.
