Appearance, apart from race, is certainly a significant source of privilege for some and discrimination for others.
But I imagine you meant race, and I don't think that is beyond question. I find it hard to believe that race remains a significant obstacle in a country where university admissions offices give extra points based on race, most major companies preferentially recruit non-whites, and the current President publicly declared that being black was the first criterion for a Vice-Presidential candidate.
However, black people remain far more likely to be born in families and communities with limited financial resources, and that naturally perpetuates racial disparities. They are, on average, more likely to attend poor schools, more likely to encounter violence in their communities, and less likely to receive help from their families. These are fundamentally economic issues that affect people of all races.
Correcting the economic disparities for everyone would also solve many of the racial issues, while not dividing the country into poor people who receive help and other poor people who do not, in the way recent race based policies clearly have.