While your civil tone is appreciated, I don't find your argument convincing. Firstly, the core assumption (and "White Guilt" author Shelby Steele's assertion) that racism is in decline doesn't stand up to recent analysis or perception. Research from SPLC and ADL show a rise in white supremacist membership, propaganda, and violence in the past 4 years in the US. Rallies and counter-protests organized by racially motivated alt-right groups are happening in this country in a dramatic fashion that hasn't been seen since the Klan marches of the Civil Rights era. Organized, overt racism has definitively found its advocates emboldened in the Trump years. Secondly, while I agree there are activists, BIPOC and otherwise, who are willing to be disingenuous and exploitative to further their agendas, I find that accusation to be among the least plausible ones. Could not her strident tone be more easily explained by anger and frustration over genuine and palpable concerns? There are ongoing incidents of lethal force by police against people of color, a publicly voiced conservative political agenda to disenfranchise black voters, real examples of systematic racism that marginalize people of color from criminal justice to bank loans to job interviews--all of which a sizeable percentage of mostly white Americans deny exists at all. Acknowledgment of the mere existence of these things still seems to be a stumbling block for many, and to my mind is one of the most egregious reasons our national dialogue on the topic lacks reconciliation and progress. There are arguments to be made against some key points in Alexandra's piece, and they are ones I'm trying to give voice to myself after more consideration, but I don't think this admonishment of the author as a name-calling white guilt miner is one of them.