History counts: A comparative analysis of racial/color categorization in US and Brazilian censuses

Categories of race (ethnicity, color, or both) have appeared and continue t o appear In the demographic censuses of numerous countries, including the U nited States and Brazil. Until recently, such categorization had largely es caped critical scrutiny, being viewed and treated as a technical procedure requiring little conceptual clarity or historical explanation. Recent polit ical developments and methodological changes, in US censuses especially, ha ve engendered a critical reexamination of both the comparative and the hist orical dimensions of categorization. The author presents a comparative analysis of the histories of racial/color categorization in American and Brazilian censuses and shows that racial (a nd color) categories have appeared in these censuses because of shifting id eas about race and the enduring power of these ideas as organizers of polit ical, economic. and social life in both countries. These categories have no t appeared simply as demographic markers. The author demonstrates that cens uses are instruments at a state's disposal and are not simply detached regi sters of population and performance.