From this, you could draw the conclusion that people are more worried about race relations because they think race relations are worse.

But there’s another explanation: Race relations are worse because Americans are more worried about the issue — that is, they’re looking for it everywhere.
Though this may sound like a contradiction, it’s not.

The less overt and institutional racism Americans encounter in their daily lives, the more those looking to “prove” America’s inherent racism have to dig for it.

We no longer have segregationists standing in the schoolhouse door. So Kylie Jenner’s braids must be racist, because something must be racist.

The real problem with such “everything is racist” hyper-awareness is that it minimizes the meaning of the word until it’s just background noise.