This article intends to discuss one of the main problems of interpretation of Bourdieu and Wacquant that is connected with the fact that they didn't use as marks of reference the Brazilian intellectual production on racial relations, choosing only a few, North-American academic ones. In this sense, the author points out some important aspects that were not considered in this choice. First, there's no consensus in the Brazilian racial relations literature, which has produced two excludent models - on the one hand, the racial inequalities are emphasized; on the other, the culture is - demonstrating the impossibility of an American imposition on the debate. He also discuss that, although an influence of the United States movement for civil rights has occurred, and that the "Americanization" measures on the debate or in the actions in the recent governmental period (with the beginning of the quota system implementation) could be more perceivable, there was an identity policy before that "influence" that comes, exclusively, from North-American foundations and intellectuals. This can be observed through many studies about "nation viability", carried out in the first decades of the XXth century.
racial relations; social inequalities; civil rights; North-American foundations; Bourdieu; Wacquant