Preliminary studies on affirmative action in a brazilian university

As a signatory to Durban III World Conference against Racism, Discrimination, Xenophobia and other forms of Intolerance, Brazil has committed itself to the enforcement of mechanisms to promote social equity. As a consequence, governmental programs have been implemented, aiming at the inclusion of Afro-descendents in higher education. Actually, the quantity of such students in the academy is minimal and does not relate to what can be observed in the general population. As an example of such endeavor, Universidade de Brasília (UnB) has started an Affirmative Action program in order to include a contingent of 20% of its freshman students as representatives of racial underprivileged groups. This policy started in August 2004. The present study aimed to investigate the perceptions of students and general public to this policy. An instrument, based partially on McConahay's (1986) Modern Racism scale, was administered to a sample of 316 students. A factor analysis (AF) extracted five factors, corresponding to 48% of the total variance explained. An Analysis of Variance (Anova) was performed to better understand the results, concerning both age and gender of the subjects. Results show that, although students demonstrated interest in the implementing of Affirmative Action programs, and are aware of the relevance of such procedures to the cultural and social structure of the community, they do not agree with their reasons or measures taken, or to the existence of the problem itself.