Great leaps have been made, absolutely, but if you look at the leaders of this country (Elected officials, CEOs, etc) the percentage breakdown by race just doesn't match the breakdown of the general population.
The basic flaw with this statement is the assumption that people only vote in officials of their own race. The county where I live is in the middle of this exact debate. According to the Census, more than 50% of my county is hispanic, 13% are black, 3% asian, 1% other, and 33% white european.
At the same time, of the 33 elected positions in the county, there are 2 hispanics, one openly gay official, and the rest are straight, white persons. Explain how racism puts whites in office.
The answer is this: maybe people are voting for the best candidate, accdoring to their own beliefs, and not according to race.