THE STRANGE CAREER OF RACISM IN POST-RACIAL TIMES: Observations on Race in America and in the Academy
The “end of racism” has been advertised for years, yet, like Freddy Krugger, racism refuses to die.
In this talk, I discuss how racism operates in post-racial America. To do so, I address four things.
First, I will suggest that we cannot examine “Freddy” adequately because we keep thinking he is just
about hate and prejudice. Second, I will discuss the structure and culture of racism in post-racial
times by referencing my work on the “new racism” and “color-blind racism.” Third, I will discuss
how race matters in the academy particularly in our own sociological houses. Lastly, I will offer
some suggestions on what is to be done if we wish to end racial domination once and for all in the
country and in the academy.
Eduardo Bonilla-Silva is a Professor of Sociology at Duke University. He is trained in class analysis,
political sociology, and sociology of development (globalization). However, his work in the last 20
years has been in the area of race. He has published on racial theory, race and methodology, color-
blind racism, the idea that race stratification in the USA is becoming Latin America-like, racial
grammar, HWCUs, race and human rights, race and citizenship, whiteness, and the Obama
phenomenon among other things. In all his work, he contends that racism is fundamentally about
“racial domination,” hence, racism is a collective and structural phenomenom in society.