This opening chapter provides a comprehensive introduction to the book’s central theme: the cultural and psychological foundations of racial perceptionRacial Perception. It begins by examining a public controversy in Brazil that underscores the widespread belief that race is a visual phenomenon, revealing the persistence of biological conceptions despite decades of constructionist theory. The chapter frames the book’s guiding question—what enables us to perceive race—and introduces the methodological choice to explore this through the experiences of a congenitally blind individual. It outlines the theoretical approach of Semiotic Cultural PsychologySemiotic Cultural Psychology, which views racial perception as a culturally mediated process rather than a purely visual one. By situating the study within broader debates on race, vision, and social practices, the chapter establishes the rationale for a qualitative, single-case design and sets the stage for subsequent chapters that delve into psychocultural mechanisms shaping racial meaning-making beyond visual assumptionsVisual Assumptions.