In recent years, the racial slant in the pattern of violent deaths in Brazil has become evident. Especially in the younger sector of the population, there have been a growing number of homicides of black people and a decline in the number among white people, which indicates an increasing inequality in the experience of violence among racial groups. When broken down into color and race, the lethal incidents monitored by the police show that they increasingly affect black people. The prison population grew, due to the jailing of black people. The discriminatory victimization of young black men has been the main concern for the social movements of black youth, which has called it “a genocide against black youth”. In addition to quantitative data, this article analyses the way that such movements have interpreted the data, in order to raise the banner of social protest against that “genocide”, and it also discusses the calls for political action to redress the problem and the specific demands of the social movements in question.

Neste ensaio pretendo contribuir para a reflexão sobre as duas gestões do Governo Federal brasileiro sob a presidência de Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, do PT (Partido dos Trabalhadores), a partir de análise da política de reconhecimento das diferenças. Detenho-me, no referido período, mais especificamente nas diferenças étnico-raciais, discutindo o quadro em que avançam as ações afirmativas nas universidades públicas, relacionando-as com as políticas do Governo Federal para a Educação Superior Pública.