Where's the line?

Something I'm finding myself struggling with is when and where it is proper to analyze situations based on race. Now I'm a chronic over analyzer, taking the things in my every day life and often twisting them in all sorts of ways in my head. Usually just for the hell of it, just to think new thoughts. So perhaps I'm not the best person to be considering where the line is between not considering race enough and considering race too much. But anyways, here's my beef:

When someone tells me I'm "overreacting" because I'll vocalize my discomfort when something blatantly racist is said, I'm automatically pissed. When you're sensitive to an issue like race, you'll pick up on it in everyday life much more often and you're more prone to possibly "overreact" when the issue is not treated as you would like to see it treated. So I don't want to say anyone is "overreacting". But I'm going to.

When you look at the outpouring of articles regarding musicians like Lorde, Lily Allen, and Miley Cyrus, criticizing them for participating in racist dialogue, I think people are overreacting. Don't get me wrong, I think it's still important that there is discourse on the issue and it should 100% be something that people consider when listening to the music or observing the actions of these artists. However, I think a lot of the criticism (at least what I've read) is not to perpetuate knowledge or understanding, but rather violently criticizes in a way that is not the least bit constructive. These artists are a part of the pop culture machine, and I think that attacking an artist's integrity or personal views is not what needs to be done as it does not confront the real issue. The real issue seems to be that the appropriation of certain themes and ideas does not resonate as inappropriate to a majority of people. When you're looking at a Lily Allen music video or a Lorde song, you're looking at a collaborative artistic product that went through rounds of review and refining before it was ever released to the masses. The issue is not artists using racial themes to prove a point, but rather that the whole system was too ignorant to even realize that certain ideas or allusions could conjure racist notions for certain individuals.

This sounds bad. But I don't mean it that way. What I'm trying to say is I don't think a lot of what is criticized today as "racist" in mainstream media really had the intention to perpetuate those viewpoints. Often, these songs or videos are inspired by the byproducts of inherently racist systems or are a result of ignorance. To react negatively to what one perceives to be "racist" is not an issue, but it does seem to be overreacting when one's criticism doesn't consider the other side of the argument. For the sake of progress and knowledge, it's important that people point out when certain works seem racist but at the same time, such an observation is really only productive if it considers how it came to be racist. Especially in mainstream media, there is usually no intention for racism as quite bluntly, it's not marketable in today's day and age. Thus the issue isn't purposeful perpetuation of racist notions but rather the ignorance that plagues the masses. How can we get more people to be aware when they are making allusions to racist concepts? How do we go about erasing that ignorance and informing people? I mean, I guess these critical articles are a start, but they aren't really a solution, are they?

So where is this line? Where is it okay to be blatantly pissed without having to explain yourself because the racism should be apparent and where is it better to accompany your outrage with constructive suggestions in order to make people better understand? Not sure. Great question.