“I’m not racist, but—” seems to be the mantra of the 21st-Century U.S.ian racist. It’s very similar to “I’m not homophobic, but—”, in that almost everyone who’s ever begun a sentence this way goes on to say something racist or homophobic. “I’m not racist, but I don’t think they should be marrying white people” — is actually something I’ve heard grown-up people say, and actually believe it’s not a racist thing to say. “I don’t hate gay people; I just think we should be allowed to discriminate against them” is uttered today by thousands (millions?) of people who seriously believe that it doesn’t qualify as hate to say it.