The introductory chapter (Chapter 1) introduces the empirical and theoretical puzzles that motivate this project and presents a brief overview of the book as a whole. I present and motivate the empirical puzzle at the heart of the book and situate the reclassification reversal as a case of identity change and politicization. I then provide an overview of the central argument and mechanisms, and discuss alternative explanations tied to affirmative action and other prevailing explanations that do not adequately explain the puzzle. Next, I discuss the research design, methods, and positionality. I conclude the chapter with an outline of what is to come.

Chapter 2 focuses on establishing and motivating the empirical puzzle that motivates this study. I present descriptive data to document that reclassification is indeed taking place, and to lay to rest simple explanations that might account for this change. I then shift to motivate the puzzle theoretically. I situate these patterns against the well-established expectations of anthropological and sociological literatures, which emphasize how discrimination and stigmatization have long incentivized whitening, or at least lightening. Zooming out further, I situate these patterns historically, arguing that the recent reclassification reversal should be understood as simply the latest development in the evolution of racial subjectivity and state policy that has spanned three centuries in Brazil.