Yes, the propensity to look for offense is way out-of-hand.
Sometimes it seems people actually want to find a reason to be offended. In our society the push to be PC has the backlash of accusasions of prejudice being made against innocent people. My rule of thumb when I get offended is to first look inside myself and see if that's where the change of attitude needs to be.
About the "soul brother" handshake ... even if it were offered because the character noticed ethnicity there's a flip side. If the character didn't offer that handshake to African Americans but to other ethnicities because of this very issue, then isn't that also discrimination? It becomes a very gray area then with either choice being discrimination. It behooves us to be very cautious of crying discrimination and offense, so that it's reserved for truly important issues.
Discriminate: 1. distinguish, differentiate 2. To make a distinction in favor of or against one person or thing as compared with others.