The problem that came with the "solution"
We know that on May 13, 1888, the Princess Isabel, then fulfilling the functions of head of state in the absence of his father, D. Pedro II, sanctioned the Golden Law. This law, officially called Imperial Law No. 3.353, abolished slavery in Brazil, the last country on the American continent to end the slave regime.
However, the end of slavery in Brazil was not accompanied by a State project (although the statesman JosephBoniface had proposed one in 1823) that would give support to the newly freed, providing them with minimal means of survival through free labor. On the contrary, even European immigrants who came to Brazil at the same time replace work slaves on the plantations lived under almost servile regimes - a fact that was even denounced by abolitionists like AndrewReeds.
THE Republic, proclaimed in November 15, 1889, also did not present any project to solve the problem arising from the liberation of slaves. Most freed blacks continued to serve their masters in exchange for housing and food. Many others were cast to their own devices, without educational instruction and without a job.
This big problem coming with the “solution” found with the end of slavery was and still is being strongly debated by intellectuals and politicians. More than a hundred years after the abolition of slavery, Brazil – as well as other countries where there was slavery or racial segregation – started to adopt the racial quota system for the entry of blacks, “browns” and indigenous people into universities as a way of doing justicehistoric. But is this type of measure effective?
Racial quotas under affirmative action
Racial quotas are included within a broader field called affirmative action. The Secretariat for Policies for the Promotion of Racial Equality, linked to the Presidency of the Republic of Brazil, defines affirmative actions on its website: “Affirmative actions are public policies made by the government or by the private initiative with the objective of correcting racial inequalities present in society, accumulated over the years”.
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Advocates of affirmative action – members of government bodies or not – therefore believe that they bring mechanisms to correct “past mistakes” based on public policies made in the gift. Racial quotas implemented at a university or any other institution would, according to the affirmative action criteria, have the function to enable descendants of former black Brazilian slaves to be able to compete on equal terms with the descendants of whites.
Criticism of racial quotas
Critics of racial quotas believe, in turn, that affirmative action, rather than promoting equality and tolerance, promotes exactly the opposite: inequality and intolerance. Some of them, like the Brazilian Demetrius Magnoli (author of the book “A drop of blood – history of racial thought”) and the American Thomas Sowell (author of the book “Affirmative Action Around the World – An Empirical Study”), believe that the quota policy encourages racism, that is, it provokes an inverted racism of blacks against whites, as it uses racial classification as a criterion for correcting "historical errors" - the same criterion that was used for policies of segregation.
In addition, another point of criticism of quotas and affirmative actions as a whole concerns the fact that the State, through this type of policy, it can free itself from the responsibility to implement more effective measures to promote equality, that is, economic and political measures. structural reform (in education, health, housing, etc.) that give those "historically disadvantaged" conditions for economic ascent and Social.
Conclusion
The points, as we have seen, are controversial, but there is always a “fair middle”, a middle ground, between one argument and another. Racial quotas certainly do not promptly and completely solve the problem of the Brazilian slave past, but nor can they be reduced to ineffective and even harmful instruments in any context in which they are applied.
By Me. Cláudio Fernandes
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
FERNANDES, Claudio. "Do racial quotas solve the problem that was not solved with abolition?"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historiab/cotas-raciais-resolvem-problema-que-nao-foi-resolvido-com-abolicao.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.
