Affirmative action policy and racial relations in education: the racial quotas case at the Federal University of Alagoas

This manuscript is an offshoot of a larger research, aiming to understand the effects racial quotas implementarion in Law and Medicine courses at the Federal University of Alagoas. The presented reflections are based on racial police of quotas, go through the ways of questioning Brazilian racial relations (QUEIROZ, 2001), developed from the relations between racial democracy, the denial of racism and meritocracy, as the question related to its implementation and continuity. For this, reports from quota students and non-quota studens were captured through semi-structured interviews aiming to undesrtand the experiences with this policy in two most prestigious courses in the academy. We understand the quota policy as a necessary support, even today, for supporting black population accessing Brazilian higher education, whose exclusion mark has on race and racismo as interpretive factors. Of note, the permanence of quota students in this space has been marked by racial discrimination. Qquota students have found it more difficult to stay in their courses, indeed, feeling as different people with intellectual capabilities are quaionable, due to access to the university via racial quotas.