"Mediocre Bunny" EvelynSubtoot. My apologies to OP if you see this- I don't mean to call you out specifically.
[Also: maybe rant-ey, almost certainly long-winded]
Someone from a country that is not the US commented about a group of their acquaintances:
"...they're largely decent folks if you can see past the casual racism..."
As a USonian, I feel like that's part of how we got to where we are now, with ICE raids and the rolling back of the progress made in racial justice since the US Civil War.
Because I used to say things like that. I regarded racism as a despicable opinion, but one other people had the right to hold. I believed that, as a devout non-racist myself, I could look down my nose at other white people choosing to be racist, say nothing, and congratulate myself on how non-judgemental I was being.
But I forgot, or had not yet heard articulated, the Paradox of Tolerance. That to allow someone else to deny the integral humanity of a third person is to deny the humanity of us all. Even, perhaps especially, the little things - the nano-remarks and the micro-aggressions. Because those form the cracks where the white supremacy leaks in.