Latin American societies and the identification of people as mestizo, mixed people, has led to distinct ideas on race. In the United States there is more consensus on racial identity, and mixtures are less recognized socially. An argument is that race is not important due to little agreement on racial identity, however racial structures where whiteness is favored creates disadvantages for indigenous and black people.
The argument that race is not important due to little agreement on racial identity is true: “It was widely argued that class was the key division in Brazil, while race was secondary (Winant 1992).” (Wade 182). But there are countries like Argentina where mixture is encouraged towards whiteness (Wade 182). More importantly, there are phenomena where racial inequalities do occur even in Brazil for instance:
Lovell (1994) shows that average income difference between white and black men is partly due the impact of educational background on the ability to compete in the job market (which may itself be due to patterns of racial discrimination outside the job market), but that 24 percent of the difference is due to processes of discrimination within the job market. (Wade 183)
While there is little agreement on racial identity there is an active dynamic of discrimination that goes on, in which, moreover, may be due to existing racial preferences in Latin America; in even a country where is it argued that class divides more so than race.
There is no absence of racism due to shifting terminologies. It is important to note that the presence of mixture in Brazil, for instance, has created vagueness about who is who identically; and that there are dozens of terms describing shade (Wade 183). However, shifting terminologies has been shown to lead to shifting discrimination regardless of the context: “Sansone shows that racial terminology in Salvador, Brazil, shifts according to context – “a son can be preto [black] to his mother and moreno [brown] to his father…” (Wade 183). Depending on who is in power racial discrimination can perpetuate as statistical evidence in Brazil shows.
Broad generalizations can be made about race. As Gate argues in his film The Roots of Division degrading jobs done by African slaves led to discrimination of them as Haitians. While these can support the notion of little racial identity it is the coexistence of race and mestizaje which serves to perpetuate discrimination and for that reason cannot be ignored; e.g., he existence of subregions associated with blackness or indigenous (Wade 183). The regions, e.g., the northeast of Brazil, the Pacific coastal region of Columbia etc. are often associated with hierarchies and with low value (Wade 183). Thus, even despite the complexities of race discriminations can still occur.
The identification of people in Latin American societies while differing from the United States has led to unique problems in discrimination due to the history. The argument that race is not important due to little agreement on racial identity ignores the problems that Latin American racial views creates; and despite the complexities of race, racial discriminations occur, even in countries where it can be argued is little agreement on who exactly is who.

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