hummingbirds can't walk. racism part II

So, I'm not even sure how it began. But we had an argument about race in our house.
It definitely started out from one comment, but it's difficult to remember exactly what it was. I think one of the boys I live with made a jokey comment about how a girl I live with (we'll call her T-race-y - get it?) makes racist comments to her friend from home when she calls him. I'm pretty sure that was one of the starting things. Also, at some point, she said that she was glad another of our housemates wasn't black. Which I thought was really strange.
I'm not recounting this well.
Anyway, there were four housemates (including me) who were anti racism, and there were two expressing racist opinions. Although later, one of them decided that actually he wasn't racist, he just didn't like the big gangs that hang around in his city (whether they're white or not). So mostly it was just Tracey fighting her own corner.
It always really shocks me when I encounter racism. I don't live in a very multicultural area, so it isn't a topic that comes up often with alot of people I know. Whenever I have experienced it, it's really upset me and caught me off guard. And something I really hate is that you can really get on with someone well, and you think they're the loveliest person, but then you can find out this really awful part of them. And once you know, you can't ever look at them the same way, and you always feel a little bit uncomfortable.
How can a person be so lovely and seemingly normal and rational in every other aspect, but be ignorant and bigoted and essentially, just stupid. Because that's what racism is, it's just stupid.
The worst part about the whole thing (and it was pretty dire, I mean, I had to keep leaving the room because I got so angry and upset) was that her concluding argument was 'Well I don't have the facts, so I can't argue back, so I'm just going to leave'. She admitted that she didn't know any facts about levels of asylum and the percentage of immigrants in the country. But she didn't recognise, even after I pointed it out to her, that a lack of knowledge is exactly why she shouldn't have that opinion. She just kept saying 'well I'm allowed my opinion' but when that's what her opinion is, then I really don't think she should be allowed her own opinion.
The things she said were ridiculous and plentiful. Like, it isn't her fault that she's a racist because she lives in a white area, so she's never met a black person. So? I've never met an innuit, but I know they're human. They're no different to anybody else. How can she be so blindly stupid?
She didn't even understand stupidly simple ideas, like why it's worse for someone who isn't black to use the 'n' word than it is for a black person to use it. She couldn't understand why the historical significance of slavery and black oppression affects anything.
There's so much that she said that was wrong. Not just that she shouldn't have said it, because it's taboo, but that the things she stated were incorrect.
She was stupid, and ridiculous, and stubborn and blind. And I hate it. And I can't forget it.