This chapter offers a historical and sociological analysis of racial perception in Brazil, contrasting it with the United States. It begins with Oracy Nogueira’s distinction between prejudice of “mark” (appearance) and “origin” (ancestry), exploring how both visual and genealogical cues shape racial categorization. Drawing on Racial FormationRacial Formation Theory, the chapter examines how state policies and cultural ideologies—such as the One-Drop Rule in the United States and whitening ideologyWhitening Ideology in Brazil—produced distinct racial projects and interpretive frameworks. The chapter proposes replacing the binary “mark versus origin” with the opposition “contamination versus purification” to better capture the symbolic logic underlying racial classificationRacial Classification in both countries. It traces Brazil’s shift from scientific racism to the valorization of mestiçagem (“racial mixing”), highlighting the ambivalent role of terms like pardo, moreno, and negro in identity formation and public policy. Through discussions of pigmentocracyPigmentocracy, census classifications, and heteroidentification controversies, the chapter reveals how racial perception operates within a complex interplay of phenotype, social status, and cultural meanings. Ultimately, it argues that racial perception in Brazil is profoundly contextual, challenging assumptions that race is a purely visual phenomenon.