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In Brazil, the Challenges and Hopes of Expanded Higher Ed for Afro-Brazilians

Published on

February 2023

Afro-Brazilians' access to higher education has improved, but work remains to ensure greater equity and a more just education experience

The election of Luis Ignacio de Silva, or Lula, as president of Brazil in late October 2022 leads to a revisit of Lula’s accomplishments in his first two terms as president from 2002 to 2010. Lula’s accomplishments – from a thriving economy to an expansion of the middle class – are a major reason Brazilians chose him as president for a third time and have garnered a renewed focus from the international media. Lula’s accomplishments range from a roaring economy helped by a commodities boom – many Brazilians have told me that during Lula’s eight years “there had never been more money in Brazil” – to expanded cash benefits that lifted many Brazilians out of poverty. Moreover, the expansion of higher education is one reason for the expansion of Brazil’s middle class and poverty reduction during Lula’s first two terms.

Between 2003 and 2009, the number of Brazilians enrolled in higher education increased from just under 4 million to about 6 million. A majority of the new students studied in private universities and, to provide access to this costly option (public universities are free but spots are very limited), Lula’s government expanded scholarship access, giving out 748,000 annual scholarships by the year 2010. In addition, shortly after Lula left office, his successor Dilma Rousseff – also of Lula’s political party, the PT – passed laws that reserved large numbers of spots at public federal universities for students from less advantaged backgrounds, including Afro-Brazilians. These laws are still in effect today.

Despite the improved access to higher education for Afro-Brazilians, proportionally their share of university students is still low. Moreover, the number of Afro-Brazilians in medical school – a highly competitive field – is even lower than overall Afro-Brazilian university enrollment. As recently inaugurated President Lula works to strengthen Brazil’s higher education and further expand access to historically disadvantaged groups, the social challenges facing university students of disadvantaged backgrounds will remain pronounced.

Access for Afro-Brazilians to higher education in Brazil has expanded greatly in recent decades -- but work remains

The Brazilian film M8 shows the practical benefits and challenges of Lula’s policies that resulted in a significant expansion of public education for the historically less privileged classes. The main character, Mauricio, is an Afro-Brazilian male from an underprivileged background who, in his medical school class, must examine cadavers as part of medical experiments. All the cadavers happen to be Afro-Brazilians, a fact that haunts the student.

Mauricio wonders how the test subjects died. All the subjects are young men. He assumes they have died violent deaths. This reflects a reality where Afro-Brazilians are far more likely to be killed by police violence than white Brazilians.

Haunted by the thought that he is exploiting the bodies of victims and disregarding their humanity, Mauricio seeks out the families of the deceased. Other people, including black maintenance workers at the university, ridicule Mauricio for worrying about the provenance of the corpses.

The challenge for Mauricio is more acute given he is one of the only Afro-Brazilians in his medical class. Mauricio lives in a lower-income neighborhood and commutes long distances on public buses to arrive at the nicely manicured university. Many classmates arrive in nice cars, presumably bought by their parents.

Despite friendly gestures by some classmates, Mauricio cannot enter their world. Mauricio starts to date an affluent white classmate who takes him to her home. The white student’s mother treats Mauricio with open suspicion. He runs away in disgust and frustration, telling the audience that no matter how hard a black student works, they will be subjected to the racism of white, moneyed Brazilians.

Mauricio’s struggles are a personal, fictional vignette that reflects the reality of many Afro-Brazilian medical students. Many current Afro-Brazilian medical students report receiving suspicious looks while on campus despite having university IDs and medical school student dress. For this reason and the fact they are in a minority on campus, many Afro-Brazilian medical students report feeling alone in the same way Mauricio does. Additionally, like Mauricio many live far-away from the centers where universities are generally located. Commutes add both the burden of time spent on buses and a symbolic, psychological toll. As mentioned above, Mauricio is constantly reminded that he is from another world and his commute between two vastly different worlds serves to further reinforce this.

The well-manicured university is a shocking contrast to the neighborhood of Mauricio

Given the various challenges facing Afro-Brazilian students, it is not surprising their numbers are disproportionately low in competitive university fields. The positive news is their numbers are increasing. As their numbers increase, they will serve as role models for others of similar backgrounds and further increase Afro-Brazilians’ share of the professional, middle and upper-middle classes which will then advantage their own children and create multi-generational wealth and educational success.


Indeed, BBC Brasil highlighted the case of a young Afro-Brazilian doctor who followed in her father’s footsteps in becoming a doctor. Her father’s case was very rare forty years ago whereas Afro-Brazilian doctors, while still not at the numbers they should be, are far greater than in previous generations. If current trends continue, we can hope that in a generation the challenges of those like Mauricio will largely be histories of a past era rather than a present reality.

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