Opinion – Cida Bento: Universities tinged with people

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This column was written for the #scienceinelections campaign, which celebrates Science Month. In July, columnists give up their space to reflect on the role of science in the reconstruction of Brazil. The writer is Adriana Alves, a professor at the Institute of Geosciences at the University of São Paulo.

The implementation of the reservation of places for students from public institutions, respecting the ethnic-racial composition of each state in the Federation, represents one of the greatest achievements of the Brazilian black movement.

The gains from adopting the measure are undeniable. Not only did universities become colored by the people, but today there is a black intellectual elite occupying spaces once reserved almost exclusively for whites. Newsstands, talk shows, soap operas, advertisements, newspaper and magazine columns are now populated by black figures and ideas that inspire new generations and raise discussions in which black people are the center and not the object of debates.

Fears of a decline in the quality of institutions with the adoption of quotas proved to be unfounded and made the prejudice of the discussion that preceded the measure even more evident. No university had its position in the national and international rankings changed as a result of the reservation of places. On the contrary, recent research shows that quota students have academic performance similar to or slightly superior to their non-quota peers, especially in institutions that have adopted, together with the reservation of vacancies, robust policies to encourage the permanence and effective inclusion of these students in life. university.

All this would be enough to attest to the success of the quotas. However, there is a central argument that such facts fail to recognize: the (r)evolution of scientific knowledge and educational practices promoted by these students.

In recent years, I have heard numerous reports of black dermatology residents who challenged professors and their visual guides to dermatological diseases illustrated exclusively by light-skinned people. I saw law students organize civil proceedings to denounce and force the investigation of fraud in quotas in institutions that failed to monitor the implementation of the measure as recommended by law.

I witnessed the emergence of collectives focused on multi and interdisciplinary support on issues related to law, technology and racism (the Aqualtune Lab, for example, which promotes anti-racist training courses in law and technology). I heard young black midwives point out the disagreement of procedures adopted for black and white pregnant women during prenatal care and labor.

Discussions about mostly Eurocentric bibliographic references forced teachers to face their own theoretical bias. The more open ones benefited from the inclusion in their bibliography of African, Latin American and traditional peoples authors, expanding the scope and quality of the discussions.

The central anti-quota argument that trumpeted the decline in the quality of the academy with the entry of these students must be reviewed. It is the universities that are qualifying their practices and expanding their knowledge to account for the increase in quality brought about by social and racial diversity, something that is already present in the best universities in the world.

Proof of this incentive for restructuring higher education is the recent creation of the Dean of Inclusion and Belonging at the University of São Paulo. As with other institutions, one of Prip’s missions is to promote a healthy and welcoming environment for the entire population of Usp, with a special interest in populations that are still underrepresented in graduate studies and, above all, in university teaching.

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