ABSTRACT

The path to successful passage of affirmative action legislation is quite narrow in Latin America, and has been especially challenging for black populations that cannot make territorial or exclusive cultural claims. Yet Uruguay, like Brazil, bucked these trends, coming to the position that racism is a problem about which something should be done. The passage of race-specific, national affirmative action legislation was the determined remedy, the first of its kind in any Latin American country. What explains this outcome? I trace the logic of argumentation that led from successful introduction to unanimous passage, finding that the path to legitimacy convened on three approaches. The argument positioned affirmative action as a form of reparation, designated it for a group whose existence as a conceptually identifiable and discrete population was not in question, and limited its temporal scope. This article contributes an analysis of the Uruguayan case, and outlines an alternative path to affirmative action in a region where such legislation remains uncommon. It speaks to the theoretical question of where, and under what conditions, specific group rights for an Afro-Latin population can accrue, and antipathy to racial recognition and treatment of inequity might be superseded.

摘要

在拉丁美洲，成功通过平权法案的道路相当狭窄，对于无法提出领土或排他性文化主张的黑人人口来说尤其具有挑战性。然而，像巴西一样，乌拉圭逆势而上，认为种族主义是一个应该采取行动的问题。针对特定种族的国家平权法案的通过是确定的补救措施，这在任何拉丁美洲国家都是首创。什么解释了这个结果？我追溯了从成功引入到一致通过的论证逻辑，发现通向合法性的途径包括三种方法。该论点将平权行动定位为一种赔偿形式​​，将其指定为一个群体，其作为概念上可识别的离散群体的存在是没有问题的，并限制了其时间范围。本文对乌拉圭案例进行了分析，并概述了在此类立法仍然不常见的地区采取平权行动的替代途径。它谈到了一个理论问题，即非洲裔拉丁人口的特定群体权利可以在哪里以及在什么条件下产生，并且可能会取代对种族承认和不平等待遇的反感。