Paving Paradise

Abstract

The recent adoption of affirmative action policies in Brazil has generated a public debate starkly in contrast to the traditionally hegemonic discourse of “racial democracy.” Many a student of race relations in Brazil would have predicted that such developments could never occur. But historical forerunners of the concept are to be found in proposals made by the Afro-Brazilian social movement in the 1940s and 1950s, advanced particularly by the Black Experimental Theater, and bills introduced by Abdias do Nascimento in both houses of the Brazilian Congress. The development of the black movement’s demands and political articulation, leading to the country’s active participation in the 3rd World Conference Against Racism in Durban in 2001, gave a major impulse to the evolution of affirmative action programs and their implementation in Brazil. International support and participation in this process is fundamentally important to the continued success of black social movement initiatives.