While the U.S. Supreme Court considers whether American universities should take account of race when they admit new students, Brazil is implementing what are arguably the most radical affirmative action measures for universities in the West [...]

If Brazil wants to mitigate the effects of centuries of discrimination against non-whites, it must also improve their access to quality schooling before university. Just 19 percent of Brazilians — compared to 45 percent of Americans and 69 percent of South Koreans — have set foot in a college classroom. Many more — mostly poor, mostly non-whites — never had the chance simply because they never finished their primary or secondary education.

From a New York Times opinion piece by Juliana Barbassa, a former Associated Press correspondent in Rio de Janeiro