This article analyzes how the implementation of affirmative action in Brazil has changed the way people, in particular potential beneficiaries of racial quotas, understand race, inequalities, and rights. Drawing on an original collection of essays written by low-income students in a college preparatory course in Rio de Janeiro, and comparing essays written nearly twenty years apart (2003 and 2022), it shows that potential beneficiaries have become more critical of the often-repeated notion that Brazil is a “racial democracy”. It also finds that, contrary to their 2003 counterparts, potential beneficiaries in 2022 rarely express fear that racial quotas would increase prejudice against black people. Finally, students in 2022 commonly describe racial quotas as a means of reparation and a right the state should protect, a framing nearly absent in 2003. These findings highlight the transformative potential of affirmative action in creating a new legal consciousness among historically stigmatized groups.