Discrimination and institutional racism are huge issues in the USA. For example a poor white family can secure lower home loan interest rates than a high income black family. This is one example of how things aren’t balanced for some POC and discrimination is just one more stressor to a general system that isn’t fair. As a black woman I’ve had people be openly racist/ sexist towards me and it’s very different than someone just being rude. Theres a lot of evidence regarding discrimination and it’s negative impact on marginalized groups & one random NYT article doesn’t disprove this https://www.jchs.harvard.edu/blog/high-income-black-homeowners-receive-higher-interest-rates-low-income-white-homeowners