MP speaks out against racial quota in USP competition with a vacancy

When speaking out in the context of a popular action proposed by state deputy Guto Zacarias (União-SP), the Public Ministry of São Paulo (MP-SP) positioned itself in favor of the deputy’s arguments asking for the suspension of a competition at the University of São Paulo (USP) which offers only one vacancy for a PhD professor to be filled in accordance with criteria established by the Quota Law.

According to the competition notice, candidates who declare themselves black, mixed race or indigenous will have different scores.

In the action filed by the deputy against the competition, Guto Zacarias argues that because only one vacancy was available, the institution could not use the Quota Law to fill the vacancy.

According to the parliamentarian, the law only provides for differentiation criteria when there is, at least, an offer of three vacancies for a given position.

In agreeing with the deputy’s arguments, the 2nd Public Prosecutor for Writs of Mandamus of the MP-SP, Roberto Carramenha, said that the notice “excludes” candidates who do not fit the racial standards established by the Quota Law.

“The relevance of the reasoning in this popular action derives from the strong signs of violation of constitutional principles that govern Public Administration, such as impersonality, administrative morality and legality, considering the possibility of ‘excluding’ candidates for the single teaching position who do not declare themselves black, brown or indigenous”, says an excerpt from the demonstration.

Elsewhere, the prosecutor said that offering just one vacancy based on racial criteria “is a clear offense to the principles of reasonableness”.

“It should be noted that the reservation of places for black and brown individuals is done in accordance with the legal system and the number of places available in the competition. In this case, the existence of only one vacancy to be filled by offering a reserve for quotas is a clear offense to the principles of reasonableness and efficiency, considering that the general rule in public competitions is equal conditions for candidates”, he concluded. the promoter when speaking out for the temporary suspension of the competition.