This is nice framing, it's very poetic, but there are a few problems with it.

First, America isn't a person. What does it mean to say that America is racist? That its legal system is racist? "The civil rights act was passed almost 60 years ago! There aren't any racist laws on the books anymore." That its citizens are racist? "Well I'm not racist, I have friends that are black." That it's history is racist? "Well when do we move on from that? Why won't you let the past go?" That it's institutions are racist? "But I voted for Obama! Twice!"

Each of these answers have been given a thousand times in response to these questions. They frame the issue in completely the wrong way and help nobody. The attention should be on specific issues that affect specific people. Let's focus on those. The philosophical and semantic questions can wait.

Second, an alcoholic is always an alcoholic. They never stop, they never fix it, they never stop being a recovering alcoholic. The problem with this applied to a country can best be seen inthe mindset of some of the black writers here on Medium. Nothing they have to say is productive or informative. They're just depressed and fatalistic about everything and everything that happens to them is about racism. The belief that the system is against you forever and nothing will ever change that is crippling. It's also largely untrue.

Today, race is still a factor in succes, but it's no longer a barrier to success. That's not good enough, obviously. I'm not saying that means it's time to shut up and be grateful. I'm saying that telling people, especially children, that their country is against them and always will be, is at least as harmful to their psychology as the racism they may face in their lives.

But most importantly, the question isn't "is there racism in America?" I think every person in their right mind would agree that there is. So the task at hand is to analyse and fix that. Adding the question "is America racist?" does nothing towards this goal. In fact, it distracts attention and energy from the goal, because now everybody is arguing about whether their counry is racist or not.

People who might be totally on board with addressing racism in some way get defensive because they feel as if their country is being attacked. Where's the benefit of doing this? Who wins?

I'm sick of talk about raising awareness or honouring causes. The problems people face need action far more than they need attention. The pundits rarely achieve anything more than preaching to their already converted audiences. They make their listeners feel virtuous or as if they're achieving something simply by getting outraged or talking about how "unacceptable" it all is. By recognising that more work needs to be done. When does it get done?

Again, the question that should dominate the mind of anybody serious about improving the problem of racism is "Who does this help? And how?" Those are the only questions that matter.