ABSTRACT
Brazil has a long history of discrimination based on skin color and a welldocumented association between people’s racial category and their access to resources, patterns of socialization, and family formation (see Telles 2004). However, recently implemented affi rmative action policies, designed to address these social injustices, have generated a heated debate over the feasibility or appropriateness of classifying people racially for such policies. Some commentators claim that accurate categorization is impossible in Brazil because Brazilians are a mixed-race people, with no clear racial boundaries. Others suggest that classifi cation is diffi cult due to “fraud”: people can dishonestly declare their racial category to benefi t from the policy.
