Using Fishman’s concepts of macro- and micro-sociolinguistics, this paper examines the relation between the sociology of language and sociolinguistics in the Brazilian context. It assays the relation between both fields in American and Brazilian academic contexts and problematizes Brazilian sociolinguistics’ bent to employ quantitative approaches. Sociological interpretation to Brazilian sociolinguistic analysis on race, class and nation is rendered in light of Fishman’s concerns on the sociology of language. It is claimed that sociolinguistic data production in Brazil, targeting at quantifying linguistic variation by employing simplified social categories, finishes generating robust knowledge that is employed politically to warrant, in a postcolonial context, Brazilian Portuguese as being distinct from European Portuguese.