Abstract America is widely recognized to be founded on liberal values. Nevertheless, in reality, there has been a systematic denial of these values in the American history, particularly in cases involving racial minorities. A conventional interpretation is that racist sentiments had overcome the conscience of Americans and caused the deviation of American national identity. Under this interpretation, the American national identity is morally innocent, standing squarely in opposition to racism. This paper is intended to demonstrate that, in the American history, American national identity had been standing firmly with racism. State-sponsored forms of national identity historically helped to distinguish members from others, and dictated how internal others (racially and culturally) were managed. But at the same time, American national identity was used by minorities to fight racism. Through defining crime and justice, the multidimensional American national identity has in fact performed substantial but ambiguous influences on the race issues even in the era of multiculturalism.