What’s in a Name? The Consequences of Violating Brazilian Emic Color-race Categories in Estimating Social Well-being
Author(s)
Byrne, Bryan; Harris, Marvin; Consorte, Josildeth Gomez; Lang, Joseph
Abstract
This is the second article reporting the results of an experiment designed to assess the consequences of overriding the Brazilian emic color-race classification system in studies of color-race relations. We have already demonstrated that use of the nonsalient term parda, rather than the salient term morena, to denote “mixed” color-race status causes the overenumeration of brancas (whites) and pretas (blacks). Some Brazilianists remain confident that the classification errors do not affect their statistical analyses of social well-being as long as the categories are dichotomized or trichotomized. Therefore, in this article we demonstrate that these nonsalient color-race terms and aggregate categories also cause erroneous observations about socioeconomic status. Brazilianists should reconsider the results of their previous work and concentrate their efforts on the search for a valid and reliable set of color-race categories.
