African-Brazilians and Natives in an Elite University: The Impact of Affirmative Action on Students in Brazil

The best Brazilian universities are public, free of charge, and highly selective. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, many public universities began to allocate places on all of their courses to underrepresented groups. The targets of these affirmative action policies were usually African-Brazilian and Native students coming from public schools. This article introduces data on Brazil's higher education system since its early beginnings: its expansion, the segmentation between public and private sectors, and the elitist character of its public universities. It points out the specificities of race relations in the country since the arrival of the Portuguese, and the historical context that favored the introduction of inclusion policies in public universities. It then deploys qualitative data in order to present the experiences of African-Brazilians and Natives who entered one elite university - the Federal University do Rio Grande do Sul through affirmative action policies. This university is located in the South of the country, in the region that has the highest percentage of white people amongst the general population. The analysis focuses on the educational trajectory, family support and expectations, race relations in the university, resilience processes, and one group of racial quota students' plans for the future. By reporting on this pioneering experience, the importance of diversity in the student body and the challenges the university has to tackle in order to face this new reality are highlighted.