In this article, I consider the approach of racial relations versus the perspective of racial politics. The former, formulated within the framework of the Chicago School of Sociology in the 1920s, assumes that races interact with each other according to the “cycle of racial relations”. This interpretation highlights the cultural and psychological dimensions and neglects the ideological, political, and institutional factors constraining and driving individual and collective choices. The racial politics approach suggests that social interactions are mediated by attributes other than race. The racial or ethnic factor is part of the social framework, and it establishes value and meaning to social categories and creates criteria for social hierarchization. In the first part of the article, I criticize the racial relations perspective and propose an analytical framework centered on the state and social movements, with a mechanism- and process-based explanation. In the second part, I retrace Brazilian racial politics, identifying the mechanisms operating over time. I argue that racial democracy is an ideology that regulates social relations, denies racism, delegitimizes black protest, creates obstacles, and hold back the fight against racism. Finally, I put forward the expression post-racial democracy as an alternative and challenging notion vis-a-vis racial democracy.