Student not considered brown sues USP after losing place – 03/01/2024 – Education

A student approved by racial quotas at the USP Law School took legal action against the university after losing his place because he was not considered mixed race. The teenager’s defense argues that the investigation procedure carried out by the institution is unconstitutional.

Glauco Dalalio do Livramento, 17, was approved in the first call by Provão Paulista, an entrance exam created last year exclusively for public school students and which distributed 1,500 places at USP. The young man competed to reserve vacancies for candidates who graduated from the public school system and self-declared PPIs (black, mixed race and indigenous).

The teenager declared himself mixed race, but the USP hetero-identification committee disagreed with his self-declaration. After evaluating a photograph and holding a virtual meeting lasting approximately one minute with the candidate, the committee members decided that he could not be considered mixed race.

“The candidate has light skin, sharp mouth and lips, straight hair, and does not present the set of phenotypic characteristics of a black person”, says the commission’s opinion.

This is yet another case this year of a candidate approved by racial quotas in a competitive course at USP who had his self-declaration of mixed race rejected by the institution. As shown by the Sheeta student was canceled from his medical course on the first day of class.

In both situations, the students were classified by Provão Paulista. USP defined that candidates selected through this test would have their racial self-declaration measured virtually. In the case of those approved by Fuvest, the university’s own entrance exam, the investigation is carried out in person.

The two students claim to believe that they were harmed in the process and question why all candidates were not given the same condition, regardless of the type of selection.

Alcimar Mondillo, Glauco’s lawyer, said he had filed a request for urgent protection to reactivate the teenager’s registration. She argues that the procedure adopted by USP is illegal and unconstitutional.

“The unconstitutionality and illegality of the USP resolution [sobre o processo de averiguação da autodeclaração] is patent, since it treated the same people (candidates for the entrance exam who self-declared black, brown and indigenous people) differently (only candidates approved by the Fuvest entrance exam have the right to prove their phenotype in person)”, says the action.

She also points out that online verification harms candidates, as self-declaration is only verified based on physical aspects.

“There is no doubt that the virtual hearing harms the candidate whose self-declaration is not confirmed, as in person the members of the commission have the real possibility of investigating the phenotypic aspects that make him suitable for the vacancy reserved by racial quotas”, he argues.

Asked why it did not guarantee in-person assessment for all candidates, USP said that “this would require a calendar of hetero-identification boards that is incompatible with the calendar of entrance exams at Enem, São Paulo universities and Provão Paulista.”

He also argued that the online investigation takes place to avoid harm to candidates from outside São Paulo. “We would have many candidates traveling to São Paulo without having registered and without a definitive response from the hetero-identification boards, which would cause harm to the candidates,” he said in a statement.

The first in his family to be approved at a public university, Glauco says he believes that, if he had been assessed in person, he would not have had his self-declaration questioned.

“We were so happy with the approval. It was an achievement for him, but it was also an achievement for our family, for the entire school he studied at. We never worried about the possibility of his color being questioned”, says Pamella Dalalio, 38 , mother of the teenager.

Glauco is from Bauru, in the interior of São Paulo, and his approval at the Faculty of Law, one of the most traditional in the country, made news in the city’s newspapers. “People recognized him on the street and came to congratulate him,” says his mother.

According to her, the family always considered the boy to be brown. “I have lighter skin, but my husband, Glauco’s father, has dark skin and black features. There was never any doubt about our son’s color.”

In a note, USP informed that the self-declaration analysis is “strictly phenotypic”, that is, only the “skin color, hair and shape of the mouth and nose” of the candidates are evaluated.

He also argued that the different format used to investigate the self-declaration of candidates does not violate the equality of the process. “In virtual versions, the hetero-identification panel takes great care to ensure that phenotypic characteristics are viewed appropriately, asking, for example, that candidates change their body position and look for places with better lighting. Everything to ensure the equality of the hearing”, he said in a note.

What is the analysis like at USP and Unicamp?

At the other two state universities in São Paulo, Unesp and Unicamp, the hetero-identification commissions’ investigation process is the same for all candidates regardless of the selection process in which they participated.

At Unesp, a student only has their self-declaration rejected after an in-person analysis.

At Unicamp, since the pandemic, the process for all candidates has been carried out remotely, with photograph analysis and, if necessary, with video assessment.

Heteroidentification boards are a demand of the black movement and recommended by control bodies, such as the Public Ministry, to prevent fraud in the quota policy. Of the three universities in São Paulo, USP was the last to form a commission of this type — and only did so after the Public Defender’s Office filed a lawsuit.

Unesp and Unicamp reported that the commissions caused cases of fraud to decrease in selection processes. In both institutions, around 90% of the candidates evaluated have their self-declaration validated.

A Sheet asked USP about how many candidates were denied self-declaration this year and in 2023, but the university did not respond.