Yet Brazilian national identity, as it is represented today by intellectuals and in official data, is in opposition to the perception most Brazilians have of themselves, and little has changed in that regard over the past century. Since moreno is the general identification, dark skin has to be justified in such a way as to distance a person from blackness; the solution is, therefore, to embrace the Indigenous ancestor, real or imaginary, in order to give a positive meaning to darker skin. Jacques d'Adesky calls for the Brazilian strategy of adopting multiple categories to be recognized as valid, rather than being considered merely a curious case of choosing popular qualification of colour over classifications of race. For him, popular creativity expresses an element of hierarchy, in which whiteness is the reference for superiority, while the other categories play into strategies to avoid blackness (2001).  
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[^0]:    4 Similar challenges in determining racial classifications based on the black/white dichotomy are found in other Latin American countries, such as the Dominican Republic, Colombia, Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. See Wade. Also, Posel, examining the issue of race in South Africa, points to the subjectivity of official race classifications.
5 Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), Aspectos demográficos, informaçōes gerais. http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/populacao/condicaodevida/indicadoresminimos/tabela1.shtm (Accessed 21 March 2017.)