The objective of this doctoral thesis is to analyze, in the discursive constructions of CEFET / RJ professors, how the stigma of quota holder is created, negotiated or challenged by the members of the institution. In order to accomplish the articulation between the concepts proposed in the research and the main objective, this general proposal unfolded in specific questions about which grammatical and linguistic lexical resources, in the teaching narratives, are related to the stigmas of quotas and negotiate them; to which systems of coherence the teachers are affiliated to; and what rhetorical strategies teachers use for creation, manipulation, maintenance, resistance, subversion, etc. of quota coherence systems. To this end, the theoretical architecture of this thesis is based on the notion of stigma (GOFFMAN, 1988), that guides this research in a general manner, and discursively supported in the narrative analysis (LABOV, 1972) combined with critical discourse analysis, through the rhetorical strategy bias described by Wodak et al. (2009). When performing the analyses, the instrumental support of Systemic Functional Linguistics (HALLIDAY, 1985) was used, through the notion of multifunctionality (REZENDE e RAMALHO, 2006), and the Evaluative System (MARTIN; WHITE, 2005; WHITE, 2004; NÓBREGA, 2009) so that the strategies of Wodak et al. (2009) were intertwined, to build the basis of the descriptions, with the lexicogrammatical evaluation items identified in the narratives. At the end of the analyses, it was possible to identify the meritocracy coherence system, specifically the aspect that brings metaphors of individual effort, climbing the ladder to success and possession of public vacancies to a certain sector of society other than where the quota students themselves are. This system appeared through lexicogrammatical evaluation items that are textual indices of a series of expectations, assumptions and prejudices that instantiate the stigmas for students who access CEFET/RJ using quota policy. To comprehend how these stigmas are created is relevant not only to the institution in question, but to the society in general. The Discourse present in the narratives about quotas delegitimizes the whole quota policy in Brazil, mitigating the strength and the importance of Brazilian affirmative policies, especially in the current political scenario. For this reason, the results of this thesis are fundamental to rethink the engagement on the path of quotas in Brazil.