The election of President Barack Obama as America's first African American president has prompted many commentators and pundits to assert that America is entering into a post-race moment in which race and racial politics are no longer a part of America's political tapestry. Obama enjoyed widespread support from across the electorate, winning even in states that had not supported Democratic presidential candidates in recent years, the so-called red states. Defying the Democratic Party's declining support among white voters, Obama fared quite well with many white voters. Not since the election of Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 has the Democratic Party carried a majority of white voters, and winning the white vote has been a challenge for Democrats since that time. Jimmy Carter lost the white vote by four percentage points in 1976, and Bill Clinton lost the white vote by two percentage points in 1992 and in 1996. Obama lost white voters by twelve percentage points, improving on the records of Senator John Kerry, who lost white voters by seventeen points in 2004, and Vice President Al Gore, who lost among whites by thirteen points in 2000.

Obama's successful run for the presidency and relative success across broad and diverse groups of Americans has prompted suggestions that America is now a post-race society in which race and racial politics are a thing of the past.