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 One hundred twenty years after the abolition of slavery, two photographs, side by side, illustrate how little Brazilian reality has changed. Looking at the photo of a classroom in a federal university, we will see only white faces. A photo taken inside the State Foundation for the Well-Being of the Minor (Febem) juvenile detention system, however, would show only black faces.
Those two photos are enough to cause Brazil shame and indignation. They illustrate the country's century-long inaction in correcting the results of the four preceding centuries. But nothing indicates that Brazil has decided to take the necessary corrective measures. The first definite action would be a revolution in education assuring equal opportunities to all Brazilian children from birth to high school graduation, no matter the city in which they were born, the color of their skin, or the income of their family. It is the inequality of opportunity, due to poverty or to birth in a poor city, that causes of the difference in color in the two photos. The racial discrimination in Brazil does not arise from discriminatory laws. Although existing in Brazil, racial prejudice is not sufficient to slow the admission of black students into the university or that of young whites into Febem. But that action, even if it were to be taken now by nationalizing K-12 education, would take fifteen years to bring about equality of reasonable opportunities in the university and Febem juvenile facilities admissions. Until then, the social discrimination will continue and induce racial discrimination. This is why the quotas for blacks are a palliative for changing the chronic reality of the two photos. Even so, many Brazilians, perhaps the majority of the population, are against the quota and offer two false arguments. First, that it will cause a drop in the quality of instruction. This argument is made either by someone who wants to manipulate opinion or someone unfamiliar with the matter. The quotas only benefit those who finish high school and pass the university entrance exam. They merely promote someone who has passed the test, but whose ranking falls below the number of vacancies. In other words, someone who placed 27th when there are 25 openings. Nothing indicates that after four or five years of university courses, a young person who ranked 25th on the university entrance exam will be a better professional than someone ranking 26th. No one asks a medical doctor for his or her university entrance exam ranking. Thanks to the quotas, educational quality may even improve for two reasons: one, the number taking the entrance exam may increase because young people who would not otherwise have considered attending the university will be attracted; two, the "quota students" will have to work harder to counter the prejudice against them. The second argument is that the quota will discriminate against young white applicants who would have to relinquish university spaces to black students. The discrimination would actually be against the young people who studied in quality schools, with guaranteed access to the university, almost all of them white, those who passed the exam because they come from families with an income above the poverty line. Moreover, I defend the idea that the university placement should not be taken from those classifying; rather, new spaces should be created for young black people who rank below the classification line. The young black student cited above as an example, who placed 27th in the test, would fill a newly created space in the university, passing over the young white student who would be excluded for ranking 26th on the test. No one classifying would be excluded; there would merely be affirmative discrimination among the non-classified applicants who passed the test. This will not make the university worse, but neither will it bring any social benefit because the young black student who graduates high school and passes the university entrance exam certainly will not come from a poor family. Only by creating public schools that assure equal opportunities to all children, be they descendents of free white or of black slaves, will we correct the shame of the two photos, which show the delay in completing the abolition of slavery. Cristovam Buarque has a Ph.D. in economics. He is a PDT senator for the Federal District and was Governor of the Federal District (1995-98) and Minister of Education (2003-04). You can visit his homepage - www.cristovam.com.br - and write to him at
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. Translated from the Portuguese by Linda Jerome -
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