Post-racial America
Post-racial United States is a theoretical environment in which the United States is free from racial preference, discrimination, and prejudice.
Origins of the term[edit]
One of the earliest uses of the term "post-racial" to describe the United States was in an October 5, 1971, article in The New York Times titled "Compact Set Up for 'Post-Racial' South".[1] The article reported the establishment of a "Southern Growth Policies Board" in Durham, North Carolina, "by some 70 politicians and professors who believe their region of 60 million citizens has entered an era in which race relations are soon to be replaced as a major concern by population increase, industrial development, and economic fluctuations".[1]
Political implications[edit]
The idea that America is post-racial, or close to it, has played a role in at least one United States Supreme Court decision. In Shelby County v. Holder in 2013, the court invalidated a section of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that had required nine states with particularly severe histories of racial discrimination to obtain federal approval for any change to their election laws.[31] The ruling, written by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., said in part, "Our country has changed." It added that in the decades since the Voting Rights Act was passed, "voting tests were abolished, disparities in voter registration and turnout due to race were erased, and African-Americans attained political office in record numbers. And yet the coverage formula that Congress reauthorized in 2006 ignores these developments, keeping the focus on decades-old data relevant to decades-old problems, rather than current data reflecting current needs."[32] Similar issues are involved[33] in Fisher v. University of Texas, a challenge to affirmative action policies on which the court ruled in 2016,[34] upholding the race-based admissions policy of the University of Texas.
Opponents of post-racialism argue that it ignores racial issues that are perceived as prevalent today. Harvard scholar Lawrence D. Bobo asserted that racism is still prevalent in subtle ways.[35]