I critically examine the eliminativist theories of race or racism, and the behavioral theory of racism, which provide the theoretical foundation, respectively, for the nominalist and substantive conceptualizations of the idea of a post-racial era. The eliminativist theories seek to eliminate the concepts of "race" or "racism" from our discourse. Such elimination indicates a nominalist sense of the idea of a post-racial era. The behavioral theory of racism argues that racism must be manifested in obviously harmful actions. And because such harmful actions are not prevalent today, this implies that we are in a post-racial era in a substantive sense. I conceptualize some subtle forms of racism that are prevalent today, which cannot be captured by the behavioral theory, but can best be captured by doxastic theories of racism. I conceptualize a substantive idea of a post-racial era, and then argue based on such conceptualization, that we are not in a post-racial era because subtle forms of racism are still prevalent today.

The article explores the impact of the election of U.S. president Barack Obama on race and racism in the U.S. The author contends that statistical disparities between Whites and minorities in education, income, career advancement, and health care remain significant. Other topics include racial stereotypes, diversity-based solutions, and disproportionate representation..

In the article, the author discusses the trauma of racism in the U.S. He cites the trauma experienced by children of color due to interpersonal and systemic racism, as well as the process of racial healing that includes teaching tolerance, transformation and relationships. He defines racism as a power plus prejudice. The opinion of theologian Brian Bantum on race is also cited.

This essay argues for the existence of a form of unconscious racism. Research on implicit prejudice provides good evidence that most persons have deeply held negative associations with minority groups that can lead to subtle discrimination without conscious awareness. The evidence for implicit attitudes is briefly reviewed. Criticisms of the implicit prejudice literature raised by Arkes and Tetlock (2004) are discussed, but found to be inconsistent with several findings of prejudice research.