This article studies the support to the principle of the public intervention for affirmative actions directed to black people through two public policies: quotas in universities, and quotas in good jobs. This study is based on the Survey on Racial Attitudes, conducted in Rio de Janeiro in 2000 by CEAP and DATAUFF, and it compares the Brazilian research data to American data. General results show, as it was expected, a major trend among black people to support the compensatory policies, and a trend against it among white people. In Brazil the 'white elite' resists to support compensatory policies, but there is a positive conjuncture to discuss these policies.
racism; black people; affirmative actions; Brazil
