DO COLORBLIND POLICIES INCREASE THE ADMISSION OF PRETOS AND PARDOS AT THE UNIVERSITY IN BRAZIL?

Abstract

If, on the one hand, it is undeniable that blacks, Indians and other minorities are faced with a deficit of opportunities in Brazil, and that the traditional system of admission to universities involuntarily contributes to maintaining such deficit, on the other hand, there is no consensus on the legitimacy of racially-based policies. Therefore, it is appropriate to examine the extent to which admission rules that ignore the parameter race as a criterion for admission would benefit certain disadvantaged racial groups – this is the main purpose of this article. Relying on a rich database from the 2010 entrance exam of Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro, simulations were made under different admission rules (based on John Roemer’s theory), with separate analyses according to levels of prestige of courses, as well as analyses of candidates that would be benefited or harmed by each policy. Results are ambiguous, suggesting that a policy that ignores the racial parameter could increase the proportion of self-identified blacks, but they would be overrepresented in low prestige courses and underrepresented in high prestige ones. Moreover, self-declared pardos
(mixed) remain underrepresented in every simulation, in aggregate terms or by level of prestige. The degree with which pardos identify themselves with category negros is a key variable when it comes to judging upon the relative attractiveness of different affirmative action policies.