Affirmative actions are focal public policies aimed at groups that suffer ethnic, racial, gender, religious discrimination. Affirmative policies aim to promote the socioeconomic inclusion of populations historically deprived of access to opportunities.
Its lines of action include:
- prioritizing the provision of public services such as education and health;
- social protection and employability;
- the legal recognition of their cultural traditions and the promotion of their continuity;
- the fight against prejudice suffered by legal, political and social paths.
The term affirmative action was first used in the USA in the 1960s, referring to government policies aimed at combating inequality between whites and blacks.
Read also: Racial democracy – a myth that alleges the existence of social equality between different races
What are affirmative actions?
Affirmative actions are focused public policies that seek to alleviate political, social and economic inequality between groups in a society . This type of action is necessary when the asymmetry of opportunities between social groups derives from their cultural, phenotypic, biological or historical injustices, common in societies that have undergone processes of slave colonization, racial segregation, civil wars. Affirmative action is also essential in multicultural societies or with intense migratory flows.
The basic premise of affirmative action is to promote equal access to opportunities . Affirmative action calls for unequal treatment of unequal ones to build an equitable distribution of goods and opportunities. They are important mechanisms for expanding upward social mobility.
They allow, albeit in a reduced way, that the paths taken by individuals from certain groups are the fruit of their choice, and not of their circumstances. Affirmative actions include the promotion of civil rights, material emancipation and the enhancement of cultural heritage .
Don’t stop now … There’s more after the publicity;)
Affirmative actions differ from anti-discriminatory actions. These are devices for punishing and restraining acts of discrimination and for raising awareness and educating on the subject of discrimination. Affirmative actions are measures to favor groups that suffer discrimination .
Affirmative actions are mechanisms for promoting social justice.
Types of affirmative actions
Affirmative action aims to alleviate the distortions imposed by inequality. They are mainly undertaken by governments , but they can also occur in the business environment, at the initiative of organized civil society groups and even by multilateral organizations. As for the method of application, it is also variable, it can be centralized or decentralized, voluntary or determined by law.
The socioeconomic dimension, which includes education and income , is the main area in which these actions are developed. Examples of affirmative social political actions are:
- bags
- aid
- reservation of priority places in housing programs
- nursery
- loans
- land redistribution
- quotas at various levels of education and in public tenders
- encouraging the hiring of individuals from discriminated social groups
- stimulus funds
- preference in public contracts
In addition to the material dimension, made possible mainly by access to education, employment, housing and means of subsistence, affirmative actions also encompass the symbolic and cultural dimension through policies to protect the lifestyles of traditional peoples, such as:
- Indian people
- quilombolas
- gypsies
- riverside
Another example is the establishment of minimum goals for participation in the press , as in soap operas, advertisements and TV programs, this increases the representativeness of groups that, even composing large population groups, have been systematically excluded from positions of media visibility.
Another focus of affirmative action is the political dimension , since the under-representation of certain groups in the spheres of power transforms them into political minorities, whose demands are not properly absorbed in legislative houses and in political and legal-administrative decision-making positions. For this reason, laws and programs that seek to increase the participation of people from groups with low representation in parliaments, such as specific funds earmarked for their candidacies or reserving seats in the Legislature, are also examples of affirmative action.
See also: Gender inequality – power inequality between men and women
Importance of affirmative actions
Affirmative action plays an important role in combating social inequality and segregation. They allow people from different backgrounds to reach spaces of influence in the educational, political, economic, socio-professional and cultural spheres. It is not a question of granting benefits or privileges, but of realizing the rights guaranteed by the Constitution .
At first, it may seem that these actions are advantageous only to individuals who, through them, reach new spaces. However, institutions and society are also strengthened in this process .
Allowing people with different backgrounds and experiences to participate in the construction of academic knowledge, the formulation and operation of laws, the functions of the State, political association, the different hierarchical positions in the labor market, means building the way for the demographic profile of the society is represented in all its productive and decision-making activities and that these are considered legitimate before the population as a whole.
The health of the social fabric itself depends on this interconnection of people participating in various institutions with their worldviews producing a common public debate. The exclusion of certain groups, in addition to the pernicious socioeconomic inequality, generates conflicts, violence, radicalism and in an extreme situation prevents the agreement of minimum consensus that constitute us as a society, such as democracy , science, citizenship, and basic civil rights .
Access also: Racism in Brazil – discrimination with historical and pseudo-scientific origins
Equality is different from equity, it proposes to treat the different in their difference so that equality is effective.
Affirmative action in Brazil
Quotas for people with disabilities in the public service are enshrined in the Constitution of 88 . The Citizen Constitution also guarantees the rights of native peoples. In 2007, the Federal Government instituted the National Policy for the Sustainable Development of Traditional Peoples and Communities, which formally recognizes the specificities of these groups and guarantees their territorial and socioeconomic rights and the appreciation of their culture.
As of the 2000s, affirmative actions were developed for the black population , with which Brazil has a historic debt for almost four centuries of slavery and for not having formulated specific policies for ex-slaves after abolition , relegating them to poverty and precariousness, especially in large cities, which has crucially harmed them and their descendants.
Among the affirmative actions in Brazil for the black population, we can mention:
- the Racial Equality Statute
- the Higher Education Quota Law
- Laws 10.639 / 03 and 11.645 / 08
In 2014, Law 12,990 instituted the reservation of 20% of vacancies in the federal public service for the black population.
The first Brazilian university to adopt the quota system for public school students was the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). Initially, the reserve of vacancies was 50%. As of 2004 , the division became:
- 20% of places for public school students;
- 20% for those who call themselves black or indigenous;
- 5% for other ethnic minorities, people with disabilities or children of public officials.
Thus, 45% of UERJ’s vacancies are aimed at individuals in these conditions as long as they have low per capita income . As of 2012, with the Quota Law , all universities and federal institutes reserve 50% of their places for students in public schools.
The Federal University of Goiás instituted social and racial quotas in 2008 with the UFGINCLUI program.
Affirmative actions to increase female participation in politics have been in existence since the 1990s, but without achieving great results in the following decades. In 2018, the STF ensured that 30% of the party fund is earmarked for female applications.
In 2012, the Federal Supreme Court unanimously decided that affirmative actions are constitutional and of paramount importance in correcting inequalities. The Brazilian State has advanced in this agenda, although there is still much to be done.
On the other hand, large Brazilian companies have been lacking. According to research carried out in 2016 by the Ethos Institute and supported by the UN and ILO, large Brazilian companies do not develop actions to promote equal opportunities between men and women and between whites and blacks. When they do, they are punctual actions, without medium and long-term plans and goals.
