August 31, 2012

Brazil boosts race quotas for colleges

You constantly hear that it's silly to worry your pretty head about the existence of race/ethnic quotas because, everybody knows, they will wither away of their own accord, kind of like the state after a Marxist revolution. 

The disappearance of quotas will happen either because there won't be any need for them anymore as our country is flooded with African-American theoretical physicists real soon now; or because practically everybody will be a little bit white through the collapse of America's One Drop Rule, so of course they will claim the enormous Privileges of Whiteness, thus making themselves ineligible for affirmative action. 

Perhaps ...

On the other hand, in the real world, there seems to be slow movement in the opposite direction. For example, Brazil didn't have a One Drop Rule and liked to brag about how it was a Racial Democracy much more sophisticated than those racist American. But mostly it meant that everybody was cool with Pele having a blonde girlfriend, not that Brazilian blacks were becoming surgeons..

So, these days, Brazil is getting more and more racial preferences:

The New York Times reports:
Brazil’s government has enacted one of the Western Hemisphere’s most sweeping affirmative action laws, requiring public universities to reserve half of their admission spots for the largely poor students in the nation’s public schools and vastly increase the number of university students of African descent across the country. 
The law, signed Wednesday by President Dilma Rousseff, seeks to reverse the racial and income inequality that has long characterized Brazil, a country with more people of African heritage than any nation outside of Africa. ... 
But while affirmative action has come under threat in the United States, it is taking deeper root in Brazil, Latin America’s largest country. Though the new legislation, called the Law of Social Quotas, is expected to face legal challenges, it drew broad support among lawmakers. 
Of Brazil’s 81 senators, only one voted against the law this month. Other spheres of government here have also supported affirmative action measures. In a closely watched decision in April, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the racial quotas enacted in 2004 by the University of Brasília, which reserved 20 percent of its spots for black and mixed-race students. 
Dozens of other Brazilian universities, both public and private, have also adopted their own affirmative action policies in recent years, trying to curb the dominance of such institutions by middle- and upper-middle-class students who were educated at private elementary and secondary schools. Public universities in Brazil are largely free of charge and generally of better quality, with some exceptions, than private universities. 
Still, some education experts are already predicting a shift to the better private universities among some students. “With these quotas, these rich Brazilians who took up their spots will not be abandoned,” argued Frei David Santos, 60, a Franciscan friar in São Paulo who directs Educafro, an organization preparing black and low-income students for university entrance exams. “Their parents who had money saved will spend it” on elite private universities. 
The Law of Social Quotas takes the previous affirmative action policies to another level, giving Brazil’s 59 federal universities just four years to ensure that half of the entering class comes from public schools. Luiza Bairros, the minister in charge of Brazil’s Secretariat for Policies to Promote Racial Equality, said officials expected the number of black students admitted to these universities to climb to 56,000 from 8,700. 
The law obligates public universities to assign their spots in accordance with the racial makeup of each of Brazil’s 26 states and the capital, Brasília. In states with large black or mixed-race populations, like Bahia in the northeast, that could lead to a surge in black university students, while states in southern Brazil, which are largely white, could still have relatively few black students in public universities. 
... Brazil’s former president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said in an interview that he was “completely in favor” of the quotas. “Try finding a black doctor, a black dentist, a black bank manager, and you will encounter great difficulty,” Mr. da Silva said. “It’s important, at least for a span of time, to guarantee that the blacks in Brazilian society can make up for lost time.”

How long is this "span of time" going to be? Christopher Caldwell noted in 2009:
"One moves swiftly and imperceptibly from a world in which affirmative action can't be ended because its beneficiaries are too weak to a world in which it can't be ended because its beneficiaries are too strong." 

The NYT continues:
Brazil’s 2010 census showed that a slight majority of this nation’s 196 million people defined themselves as black or mixed-race, a shift from previous decades during which most Brazilians called themselves white.

You get more of what you pay for. The BBC reported last year on the 2010 Brazil Census:

Out of around 191m Brazilians, 91 million identified themselves as white, 82m as mixed race and 15m as black. 
Whites fell from 53.7% of the population in 2000 to 47.7% last year.

I suspect that as the benefits from affirmative action increase, the number declaring themselves eligible will continue to increase. 

Brazil differs from the United States in that eligibility isn't simply based on self-declaration. They have panels to eyeball applicants, famously once putting identical twins in different categories. As I've mentioned before, it would make a good Brazilian reality TV show in which people try to look black enough to get into college and white enough to get past the velvet rope into an exclusive night club. It would be like a Brazilian version of Kipling's If come to life.

40 comments:

Anonymous said...

I recently answered "Black" during a lengthy product testing interview and the woman was plainly terrified to look up or pause lest I accuse her of racism for judging me by the color of my skin rather than by the fibs of my language.

I didn't stand to gain anything by it but I don't particularly care whether Sky Vodka improves their packaging and marketing campaign or not so - what's to lose?

It really is odd how newspeak has warped the minds of the masses. But damn funny.





Anonymous said...

The whites in Brazil average 70% to 80% European ancestry depending on the region. They're basically quadroons:

http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0100-879X2009005000026&lng=en&nrm=iso&tlng=en

Anonymous said...

I've been to Brazil three times, and many of the "whites" there have discernable African ancestry, so I think it will be awfully subjective as to who qualifies for affirmative action.

Torn and Frayed said...

Strict racial quotas for universities, set by percentage of population, would be a huge gain for white Americans (if not a loss for the country as a whole) especially if Jews were counted as a separate group. I f American universities went Brazilian and had to allot spots according to the racial makeup of each state then Asian and Jews, who are currently strongly overrepresented (for very good reasons, btw), would take a huge hit. The key point is that a strict racial quota means not only a floor to the percentage of any race, but more importantly a ceiling as well. So Asians being around 10% of the California population would no longer by allowed to take more than 20% of the UC places. Of course the way around this is to increasingly allot UC places to rich foreigners, but of course, as any good Marxist know; these foreigners should be limited by the same racial quotas as the locals.

Anonymous said...

The current (small) crop of black doctors are going to really hate this move. Suddenly the value of the degree for a black person is only going to have worth if similar affirmative action laws are in place in the workforce. So you have to hire so many dud AA hires to allow you to hire enough competent non-AA hires.

Jim O said...

"President Dilma Rousseff"

Anonymous said...

I'm tired of Sailer's offhand cuckold stuff "Pele and blonde girlfriend." Enough of this shit...you have no clue about how sex is seen in Brazil. That's not representative of miscegenation there or how it works. Blacks are at the bottom of the sexual marketplace there (both men and women). Blondes and "morenos" (whitelooking face with very tan skin) are at the top, both for men and women. Racism is everywhere and casual. But it's also illegal now, you can go to jail for insulting someone racially.

Anonymous said...

'Affirmative Action' - the USA's great stink-bomb for the world.

Affirmative action was an idea cooked up in American by professional kooks and activists and imposed by the administration that destroyed the Republic (ie Kennedy/Johnson).
That duplicitous jowly concave-nosed swine Richard Nixon legally enshrined.
Now this crap is insiduously sticking its tentacles all over the world from the UK to India, anywhere in fact where there are 'minorities' to shout and scream and stamp their feet.
No doubt all these lesser nations adpoted it because it's American and therefore 'cool', 'hip', 'progressive' and 'smart' - you know the way second class political minds (ie all of them) are in awe with power.
Anyway, a moment's consideration will tell you that AA is not only profoundly anti-democratic, but anti equity and anti meritocratic. In fact it's an even worse political construction than Soviet Marxism.
In a word it is feudalism. Basically, the state (the crown), dividing the populace into hereditable estates, and these estates being subject to all kinds of discrimination, privelege, taxation and 'duties' based upon hereditary and unchangeable status.
It's a policy against the enlightenment and back to the dark ages.

Brazilian said...

I'm no surprised by this... After 50 years of struggle the Marxists finally took control of Brazil, our current 'Presidenta' is a former marxist guerrilla (terrorist).

There is not much advantage in being identified as a white male anymore. The 'Culture of Critique' is winning.

Anonymous said...

I'm tired of Sailer's offhand cuckold stuff "Pele and blonde girlfriend." Enough of this shit...you have no clue about how sex is seen in Brazil. That's not representative of miscegenation there or how it works.

Well if the "whites" down there are basically quadroons, then it's not "cuckold" stuff, it's reality.

Mr X said...

It's not that all Whites in Brazil are "70% to 80%" Caucasian, I believe that's a general average, some are more, some are less.

There is a small white European (95%-100% White) minority in Brazil (maybe 10%, can't be sure) that is directly descending from immigrants and doesn't mix much, the rest is probably mixed at least to some degree with amerindians and blacks. However, also the "blacks" are very mixed, according to one study, they are 60% European in average.

Blondes like Xuxa and Vera Fischer and Gisele Bundchen are the top in terms of sex symbols. Of course, there are a lot of false blondes there too.

Lizards Rule said...

Yeah, policies that harm Whites and benefit non-Whites do not end easily. If Whites want Anti-White policies to end for their children and grandchildren, it will take a very aggressive amount of pushing.

Anonymous said...

o/t - reality vs Blank Slateism

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/9511216/Lego-profits-jump-as-sales-of-controversial-Friends-sets-soar.html

Only a few years ago there were still toys for boys and toys for girls. Not many boys had Polly Pocket sets. Now, it's "controversial".

"When Lego Friends was launched earlier this year, it was met with protests from some consumer groups saying the toys were reinforcing gender stereotypes. The line includes a set for girls with mini-figures in pink, purple and green settings, a dream house, a splash pool and a beauty shop.

In the US, the SPARK movement against the sexualization of girls and young women organized a petition with more than 50,000 signatures calling on Lego to change its marketing strategy."


Result :

"The family-owned Danish toy maker said net profit rose to 2bn kroner (£212m), from 1.48bn kroner in the first six months of 2011. Sales rose 24pc to 9.1bn kroner.

The company said it sold twice as many Lego Friends sets as expected during the first six months of the year, AP reported.

"It has been amazing to experience the enthusiastic welcome that consumers have given the new range," chief executive Joergen Vig Knudstorp said. "Sales have been quite astonishing."

Anonymous said...

" Anonymous said...
I recently answered "Black" during a lengthy product testing interview and the woman was plainly terrified to look up or pause lest I accuse her of racism for judging me by the color of my skin rather than by the fibs of my language.

I didn't stand to gain anything by it but I don't particularly care whether Sky Vodka improves their packaging and marketing campaign or not so - what's to lose?

It really is odd how newspeak has warped the minds of the masses. But damn funny."



cool experiment

It goes along with that comment in the other thread about political correctness being as outrageous as possible because it is intended to humiliate the person who must politely accept blatant lies and pretend they are true because he feels powerless.

Anonymous said...

Now this crap is insiduously sticking its tentacles all over the world from the UK to India, anywhere in fact where there are 'minorities' to shout and scream and stamp their feet."


They, like women, do not demand rights. Rather it is entirely driven by elites and their media.


No doubt all these lesser nations adpoted it because it's American and therefore 'cool', 'hip', 'progressive' and 'smart' - you know the way second class political minds (ie all of them) are in awe with power.


No doubt.

Anonymous said...

There is a small white European (95%-100% White) minority in Brazil (maybe 10%, can't be sure) that is directly descending from immigrants and doesn't mix much

Virtually all Southern Europeans have some black admixture:

http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pgen.1001373

Mr X said...

By "Whites" and "Blacks" in Brazil, I mean self-identified as. Of course, as Steve points, now that there are benefits, there are more "blacks".

Anonymous said...

I'm no surprised by this... After 50 years of struggle the Marxists finally took control of Brazil, our current 'Presidenta' is a former marxist guerrilla (terrorist). There is not much advantage in being identified as a white male anymore.

Interesting that this coincides with the rise of Brazil as an economic power.


Anonymous said...

People are confused because there is no objective definition of "white person".

You don't even need any "real" white people as long as mistreatment is based on color. Thats why, even when everybody of black, the lighter skinned ones have more power, money...

Washington DC is a good example. White people are no longer mandatory to have a white supremacy system.

Anonymous said...

PBS ran a docuementary several years ago on Brazilian affirmative action. It noted that when the laws were being debated the question came up about who would do the eyeballing and a widespread joke was "Let the police do it. They always seem to figure out who is black and who isn't."

Chicago said...

The more a round peg doesn't fit into a square hole the greater is the force used to try to jam it in. Seems to be a general rule. Brazil has been touted as the next great thing. We'll see how that works out.

Harry Baldwin said...

requiring public universities to reserve half of their admission spots for the largely poor students in the nation’s public schools

Interesting ambiguity there: "poor students" or "students lacking financial means"? I would guess both.

RWF said...

"'Affirmative Action' - the USA's great stink-bomb for the world.

Affirmative action was an idea cooked up in American by professional kooks and activists"


The kooks and activists are only responsible for American Affirmitive Action. Preferential policies in India, for instance, predate the USA's quotas.

Anonymous said...

http://arts.nationalpost.com/2012/08/14/robert-fulford-what-a-bunch-of-nebbish/

Truth said...

"Affirmative action was an idea cooked up in American by professional kooks and activists and imposed by the administration that destroyed the Republic (ie Kennedy/Johnson).

No, affirmative action was an idea "cooked up" by people who wanted to be fair to a class of Americans who were under a de facto "negative action" policy; that is, They were subject to taxes, but not welcome to use the facilities for which they were taxed.

Truth said...

"Blondes like Xuxa and Vera Fischer and Gisele Bundchen are the top in terms of sex symbols. Of course, there are a lot of false blondes there too."

I would be interested in seeing a poll, both outside, and inside Brazil, of what men think of, when they hear the term "beautiful Brazilian." When I hear that term, I personally think of a mixed-race black woman. Is it just me? I don't know.

My question is, that if people wanted to look at German girls, like Bundchen, why would they come to Brazil

Anonymous said...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/14/why-goldman-sachs-other-wall-street-titans-are-not-being-prosecuted.html

Anonymous said...

Really, no kidding, will someone tell me why "all the politicians" are in favor of such giant quotas? Don't the politicians themselves come from the to-be-disadvantaged "whitish" classes? Exactly what rewards will accrue to the pols for implementing this?

Anonymous said...

This is to show europeans that nowhere in the world they will escape being second-class citizens. Time to close and clean Europe for its people.

As for Brazil, it is a latin american Africa being pulled forward in a leash by the chinese. It is a lost cause of a country where successive leftist administrations look to every single american society-wrecking iniciative and copy it mindlessly of the reason or effects.

DaveinHackensack said...

I'd be surprised if white Brazilians averaged only ~80% European ancestry. I've been there a few times, and my impression is that many tend to look as European as your average Portuguese or Italian. Though you do see some Northern European types too occasionally (I understand you'd see a lot more in Brazil's 3 southernmost states, though I've never been to any of them).

As for Brazilian models, IMO, Adriana Lima is prettier than Bundchen.

Truth, there is a famous mostly black Brazilian model, but I forget her name.

Anonymous said...

As for Brazilian models, IMO, Adriana Lima is prettier than Bundchen.

Way prettier. Adriana Lima is tri-racial like probably the plurality of brazilians: swiss, african, amerindian.

Anonymous said...

One interesting observation: euro-afro mixes in Brazil look more caucasian (even when brown skinned) than their counterparts in North America.

I guess this is because the mediterranean race, portuguese, italians etc, tends to have more hard core aquiline/caucasian features than anglos.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 9/1/12 3:14 AM:

Virtually all Southern Europeans have some black admixture

This is likely correct, though the levels of admixture are very minor. Dienekes Pontikos has written two very detailed blog posts illustrating in detail why the method used by Moorjani to estimate African admixture is unreliable. They made the assumption that the Northern European reference population was not admixed, whereas their is now evidence that Northern Europeans have Northeast Asian admixture.

Scrubbing Sardinians

Sub-Saharan Admixture in West Eurasian Groups (Moorjani et al. 2011)

Anonymous said...

What was that line of de Gaulle? Oh yeah, " Brazil is not a serious country " It's bad enough they suffer under bad feudal derived Iberian political institutions, now they are going to add race based social engineering to the mix. Well, no one in China or India or Chile for that matter is going to lose any sleep over them handicapping themselves even more than they do already. I foresee a Latin American version of Nehru's India ( Pre-1990 India ) with a Hindu rate of growth, or would it be a lapsed Catholic rate of growth, maybe it should be called a Lula rate?

Anonymous said...

In Brazil most mixed-race people come from/are descended from either European men/Black women or European men/Native women sex/unions/etc. The Mediterranean explorers came without women and since they were horny, they used the Black women or the Native girls are their outlet. Some of the Slavics ones did this too but to a lesser extent I think.

Anonymous said...

I propose that this is all you need to know about the "whites" of Brazil.

"The most uniform category was that of individuals self-classified as White who consistently had a predominant European ancestry, varying from 66.8% in Bahia (BA) to 85.5% in Rio Grande do Sul and 86.1% in Rio de Janeiro."

Anonymous said...

Don't forget about Eike Batista, the richest man in Brazil and the eighth richest man in the world,

http://sharequotes.us/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Eike-Batista.jpg

The post above talking about how 10% at least of Brazilians are totally white is correct. The rest of you need to travel a bit more and put less confidence in studies based on samples of like 50 people. I'll trust my own eyes and experience, thank you.

I'm not Brazilian.

TGGP said...

Cuckoldry and miscegnation are distinct concepts. I can't recall ever seeing that point confused before.

Anonymous said...

I propose that this is all you need to know about the "whites" of Brazil.

"The most uniform category was that of individuals self-classified as White who consistently had a predominant European ancestry, varying from 66.8% in Bahia (BA) to 85.5% in Rio Grande do Sul and 86.1% in Rio de Janeiro."


Based on the american one-drop rule all these brazilian "whites" would be considered non-whites...

Remember also how the racial purist nazis considered most of the Slavs as untermenschen or subhumans on account of mongoloid admixture amongst them.

Anonymous said...

I'll trust my own eyes and experience, thank you.

In the case of Brazil, you can't just trust your eyes unlike say North America which traditionally practiced hypodescent.

That's what makes Brazil interesting for various genetics questions. People who identify or are identified or classified as white in Brazil tend to have non-trivial African, Amerind, ancestry.

In North America on the other hand, people who identify as white tend not to have any African, Amerind, etc. ancestry, including those with family rumors or stories of old Cherokee or whatever heritage.