racism a major plot line and a major issue

Maybe it was just me but just about every character in the book so far has expressed some racist slur or thought at one time or another.  Smith tells it like it is go back and count the number times this year someone said this and offended someone else racial.  Count the number of times someone dies because of their race, too gruesome instead count the number of times race has come up in the campaigns.  But we're not talking about how to address the issue we just here this guy used the race card, this dude hates these people, blah blah blah.  What about the example we are supposed to set for the rest of the world yet here we are in an election year and the racial tension so thick it could be cut with the proverbial knife.   Apparently race has been made an issue this election year so lets use that attention to work towards a solution instead of perpetuating the beast.  We owe it to the issue itself if nothing else, but i guess I'm just an idealist