Are Formal Rules Sufficient to Counteract the Burden of History? Racial Inequality and the Historical Evolution of Formal Educational Rules in Brazil

This article addresses the issue of racial inequality in Brazil, specifically within the education system. We present statistical data highlighting the disparities between White and Black students regarding illiteracy rates, school attendance, and learning outcomes. We argue that traditional economic frameworks have difficulty incorporating racial issues in their analyses of inequality and call for increased academic research on the subject. Our discussion shows that these disparities are perpetuated by cyclical and historical processes that produce and reproduce various forms of racism. We also introduce the concept of “racial rules” to understand better how formal and informal rules have been institutionalized and employed to promote or hinder racial equity. The article outlines a typology of racial rules, including exclusionary, inclusionary, and nonrules, and uses it to analyze the historical evolution of public education policies in Brazil. To illustrate how formal educational rules perpetuate conditions of stagnation for the Black population in education, the article examines two periods in Brazilian history.