ABSTRACT
The most impressive aspect of the racial situation in Brazil appears under the trenchant denial of the existence of any "color" or "racial " problem. Racial prejudice and discrimination, as racial segregation, are seen as a sort of sin and as dishonorable behavior. Thus, we have two different levels of reality perception and of action connected with " color " and " race " : first, o\·ert, in which racial equality and racial democracy are supposed and proclaimed ; second, covert, in which collateral functions perform through, below and beyond the social stratification.
