But my main point I guess is that racism is something more specific than simply bigotry or prejudice. Let's remember how the recent debate started - it was about 'people of colour', not 'people of culture'! But I agree that that leaves many other questions of attitude and perception unexplained.
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Yes, racism is "something more specific than bigotry or preducice" it is, first of all, the belief in races and, additionally, the belief that among these supposed races, some are superior to others.
Of course, you already know this but sometimes by re-stating the known it's possible to learn (or re-learn) important things.
You cannot have racism (or conventional sorts of anti-racism for that matter) without a belief in race.
The racialist point of view sees a deep, biological and cultural chasm between myself and a Japanese man for example. From this POV, the supposed biological rift determines the cultural divide. If either I or the Japanese fellow, or both of us, believe ourselves to be superior to one another based upon our 'racial' characteristics we can properly be called racists.
We can be called racists because a.) we believe in the concept of race and b.) we believe the 'race' we belong to to be the 'best'.
There can be no racism without a belief that humanity is divided into races.
Even if this belief is absent, there can still be conflict between groups - often quite bloody and brutal as we've seen again and again. So, racialism is an add-on, a perverse enhancement of a pre-existing human tendency towards division along whatever lines seem important.
Regarding European anti-semitism and racism...
Prior to the racist age (which probably began in earnest with the modern era slave trade from the 1400's on), cultural difference was sufficient to produce conflict and bloodshed. Jewish communities were convenient attention deflecting scapegoats for monarchs and the church at various moments - their numbers were always relatively small, so they were vulnerable and there were real cultural differences from the majority populace, most visible amongst the observant, which could be misrepresented as 'un-godly' occult practices.
I believe it was the Nazis who took old and new anti-semitic notions and refashioned them into an insanely dangerous narrative about the irreconcilable racial differences between 'Aryans' and Jews which could only be solved through total destruction. There was anti-semitism before the racialist era, and, once this phase of human history began racist ideas were added to ancient anti-semitism.
But the Nazis brought it all under one umbrella and created an 'in the blood' story which haunts and infects to the present day.
Militarily, the Nazis were utterly defeated but the mind-virus they created has not died.
DRM