Inconsistency in Racial Classification between Interviewers and Respondents

Edward E. Telles, University of California at Los Angeles

I investigate the extent to which interviewers and respondents consistently classify race in a survey of Brazil. Overall, classification as white, brown or black is consistent 79 percent of the time. However, persons at the light end of the color continuum tend to be consistently classified while ambiguity is greater for those at the darker end. Using statistical estimation, the findings also reveal that consistency varies from 20 to 100 percent depending on one's education, age, sex and local racial composition. Furthermore, both "whitening" and "darkening" occur, depending on whether the reference is interviewer or respondent. For example, interviewers "whitened" the classification of higher educated persons who self-identified as brown, especially when such persons reside in mostly nonwhite places. Finally, I discuss the implications of these findings for survey research and comparative analysis.