Affirmative Actions

PPRER opened its first class in 2011, already implementing racial quotas in the student selection process. In 2014, the program expanded the percentage of reserve vacancies for quota candidates from 30 to 50%, as it understands that, in order to be consistent with the theme it discusses and with the knowledge it produces, the program must be guided by ensuring parity with IBGE (2013) data, in which the percentage of the self-declared black population in Brazil is 53%. This action is pioneer in the graduate segment at CEFET/RJ and is echoed by few graduate programs in Brazil. With this affirmative policy, PPRER intends to have a student body representative of the population of Brazil, in which black and indigenous people exist with their protagonism, and expertise. Having this as an objective also means wanting to change a national framework of asymmetry and injustice of an ethnic-racial character, in which black people have been historically allocated to the margins of society and, when they occupy prominent social places, they do so by exception, and not by rule. The significant increase in the number of black students is notorious, which, in itself, is a relevant factor of social insertion and distinction of the program, if we compare it to other graduate programs. The arrival of these new actors to stricto sensu graduate program has as a consequence a different view of society with all its tensions because they are often able to analyze these tensions and produce the knowledge derived from this analysis from an internal and non-hegemonic point of view in the academic environment. PPRER has registered about 68% of its self-declared black students so far. For CEFET/RJ, this number is emblematic and represents the inauguration of a new era, in which social groups traditionally excluded from academia are, in fact, occupying this space that is rightfully theirs.

The profile of the students recently enrolled in the program has been a prominent reason. Of the 35 (thirty-five) enrolled in 2019, 33 (thirty-three) declared themselves black (black or brown) and 2 (two) declared themselves white. This proportion will still appear at the time of the candidates' registration for the selection process. There were 230 (two hundred and thirty) enrolled for the 2019 student selection, being 198 (one hundred and ninety-eight) self-declared black and 32 (thirty-two) self-declared white. Regarding the gender of the candidates, there were 172 (one hundred and seventy-two) women and 58 (fifty-eight) men competing for the contest. Of this total of candidates, 179 (one hundred and seventy-nine) expressed interest in competing for racial quotas – the public bid provides for 50% of vacancies for quota. At the end of the entire selection process, PPRER had 21 (twenty-one) black women, 2 (two) white women and 12 (twelve) black men enrolled for the 2019 class. In this sense, it is necessary to emphasize the social impact of the PPRER, since its student body subverts the numbers commonly associated with the Brazilian graduate scenario – in which a good part of the programs is constituted, mainly, by white men of middle class. The expressive enrollment of young black women in the PPRER points to a framework of optimism regarding the economic, social, and cultural impact of the program, since the education of these students will result in transformations at the base of the Brazilian social pyramid.