HISTORICAL REPARATION AND RACIAL EQUALITY: AN ANALYSIS OF THE IMPORTANCE OF RACIAL QUOTA AFFIRMATIVE ACTION POLICIES FOR UNIVERSITY ADMISSION IN BRAZIL

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the legal and social effects of slavery and colonialism imposed on Black and Indigenous populations in Brazil, understanding this historical process as a serious human rights violation with intergenerational repercussions. It is based on the understanding that the Brazilian State, as an agent responsible for or complicit in this systematic rights violation, has a legal and moral duty to promote reparations for the victims and their descendants—an obligation that has been increasingly demanded over the decades by the Black and Indigenous movements. In this context, public affirmative action policies, especially racial quota policies for access to higher education, constitute a contemporary instrument of reparative justice, resulting from a trajectory of struggle and resistance. The article intends to demonstrate that such actions are not limited to social inclusion, but are grounded in the State’s historical responsibility and in the constitutional principle of substantive equality, functioning as a form of collective compensation for past violations that still produce effects in present-day society. Finally, it will be shown that the quota policy is an extremely important tool for Brazil to fulfill its constitutional goals of reducing inequality and guaranteeing full citizenship.