In 2003, the implementation by Rio de Janeiro State University of its quota system to benefit Afro-Brazilians created great controversy. White people complained and sued the state, arguing in defence of an exam-based selection system, while Afro-Brazilians complained that people considered white were able to declare themselves as blacks or pardos to beat the university's system. The university responded that the practice of utilizing biological tests to determine race had been condemned since the end of World War II, and explained that the system would self-correct in time and that initial problems were to be expected (Thuswohl, 2003). As the quota system and implementation of affirmative action expanded, conversations about racial identity became more common and even mandatory in high school, as students were preparing for university education, and in universities, where students and professors discussed the availability, legality and application of the system.  
Again in 2003, a federal law provided for the mandatory teaching of AfroBrazilian and African history and culture in high schools, and in universities in order to train teachers. A new field of studies thus opened up for historians, educators, sociologists and anthropologists. It also stimulated the construction of repositories of historical and cultural sources and the creation of museums and research centres. Popular organizations, labour unions, maroon communities, religious organizations, and cultural institutions were also set up across the country.  
Between 1980 and 2015, Brazil opened up to the influence of the AfricanAmerican struggle against racism; to the songs of Jamaican musician, Bob Marley, calling for black peoples' rights, which influenced Brazilian music and stimulated an Indigenous reggae movement that expanded into political and social activism; and to the ideas and writings of African intellectuals.  
In 1996, the Revista Raça Brasil, a magazine in the style of the American Ebony, was founded, followed by others that promoted the 'black is beautiful'