For centuries, people around the globe have been subject to unequal treatment and discrimination because of their sex, race, skin color, ethnicity or national origin. The second half of the twentieth century, however, has seen an increase in efforts to combat such inequalities via antidiscriminatory legal action and public politics of inclusion. Brazil has only recently joined the list of nations that have implemented affirmative action policies. After a period of military governance that ended in 1985, efforts to acknowledge and combat racism and inequality as part of the process of democratization are still at an early stage. In the United States, by contrast, African Americans have benefitted from the achievements of the civil rights movement. However, though the development of an African American middle class is widely acknowledged, North American Blacks remain disproportionately represented among the economically and socially disadvantaged. This book offers an insight on the history of affirmative action in Brazil and in the United States and compares the debates about policies of inclusion at Brazilian and American universities and colleges.