Keywords
Racial quotas
Principle of equality
Abstract
The purpose of this article was to study affirmative actions, with emphasis on the politics of racial quotas adopted by Brazilian universities. The central question is whether these measures have legal support for their application or whether they would be unconstitutional because they face the principle of equality set forth in the Federal Constitution of 1988. The work was carried out using as a base the bibliographic exploratory research. It was verified that the principle of equality (isonomy) is constituted as a constitutional means by which differentiated treatment is ensured to individuals who are in unequal situations. Thus affirmative measures, in the form of quotas, represent an important instrument for a just society, but cannot be treated as the solution to the racial problems in the country.