Ações afirmativas para negros na universidade pública na contemporaneidade: debates sobre identidades raciais a partir das denúncias de fraude nas cotas.

Abstract

This work was developed as a case study of the effects of allegations of fraud on the racial selfdeclaration of candidates in the quotas for black, brown, and indigenous people at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF). At the beginning of 2018, the university received many complaints over a three-month period. An investigation commission was appointed in March to investigate such complaints. Through participant observation and contact with groups and collectives of black students organized at the university, it was possible to understand their main thoughts and perceptions about both the phenomenon and the institutional process of the commission. A peculiarity of the university is that it uses three criteria when facing fraud reporting, not being restricted to the phenotypic criterion. In addition, I have collected data on quota fraud reported through UFJF’s Ombudsman General, in 2018 and 2019. I have conducted interviews with managers of the Affirmative Action Directorate (DIAAF), who were members of the commission in 2018. I have also conducted interviews with several undergraduate students, with various racial identifications, either politically organized or not.The research took place during the phenomenon and its initial conflicts. Thus, fraud is, in some cases, silenced, accepted or tolerated in order to maintain personal or group relationships – resulting, even if indirectly, in the maintenance of the university as a symbolic and concrete space of whiteness. However, it is the responsibility of university institutions and individuals, allied with the goal of democratizing the university, to consider fraud as a structural problem – such as racism