Abstract

The debate on racial classification in Brazil constitutes an enquiry subject that, the racial classification in Brazil is not “objective”. It has evidenced that the system of racial classification in Brazil is complex, ambiguous and fluid, resultant of the sophisticated process of combination of elements of the appearance colour of the skin, corporal traces (format of the nose, lips, type and colour of hair), regional origin and social, that is, of the general, composed appearance for the combination of the life style (skill), as the instruction degree, the income, the style in substance of fashion (hair, clothes, cars) and until the affection or antipathies of the speaker for the person in question. In fact that our system of racial classification is based on the appearance does not generate controversy between the scholars. The controversy occurs in other plans, as for example, the way to operate the racial classification: would be binary (white X black) or multiple, estimating a continuous of categories.