Except... You're over-simplifying racism. It's not just you, however- people are ALWAYS over-simplifying racism by decrying "how can people hate others simply for the color of their skin???", so it's understandable how it gets repeated as if based in fact. I've lived my entire life in the supposedly-racist Southeastern U.S. and never ONCE in my life have I heard anyone say they disliked someone because their skin was a different color. Rather, skin color is often associated with different CULTURES, and it is the differences in CULTURE that people like or dislike, not the actual color of skin. The reason Europeans felt superior to Sub-Saharan blacks hundreds of years ago was not because the Africans' skins were brown, dark brown or black. It was because their culture was deemed "primitive" by European standards of that time. Unless and until people let go of the platitude that is "people hate simply because of the color of skin", we're NEVER going to get anywhere with the discussion of race relations.