There is a huge variety of alternatives one could offer as a defense against racism, and giving one rather than others inevitably provides evidence about the various features that get called racist. If the best defense someone can offer (assuming people lead with their best defenses) is “some of my friends are X,” that can be evidence of racism by indicating the absence of more persuasive defenses, perhaps one of these:
My spouse is X
My best friend is X
My best man/maid of honor was X
My roommate is X
I am 1⁄4 X
I have voted for X political candidates A, B, and C
I am a member of the pro-X political group A
I chose to live in an area with a high population of X
I send my kids to a mostly-X school
I don’t believe [false] racist-sounding claims A, B, C...
I don’t believe [true] racist-sounding claims A, B, C...
I believe [true] anti-racist-sounding claims A, B, C...
I believe [false] anti-racist-sounding claims A, B, C
I have a low score on the IAT for anti-X associations
I love X, an X saved my life in Iraq
I donate to charities that primarily help X folk
Haha, yeah, right [insert funny joke or self-deprecating humor as countersignaling]
I participated in the boycott against anti-Xers
Look at my demographic characteristics: in surveys and IAT studies people of my occupation, education level, religion, and political affiliations show low levels of racism, so your prior for me being racist should be low
There is a huge variety of alternatives one could offer as a defense against racism, and giving one rather than others inevitably provides evidence about the various features that get called racist. If the best defense someone can offer (assuming people lead with their best defenses) is “some of my friends are X,” that can be evidence of racism by indicating the absence of more persuasive defenses, perhaps one of these:
My spouse is X
My best friend is X
My best man/maid of honor was X
My roommate is X
I am 1⁄4 X
I have voted for X political candidates A, B, and C
I am a member of the pro-X political group A
I chose to live in an area with a high population of X
I send my kids to a mostly-X school
I don’t believe [false] racist-sounding claims A, B, C...
I don’t believe [true] racist-sounding claims A, B, C...
I believe [true] anti-racist-sounding claims A, B, C...
I believe [false] anti-racist-sounding claims A, B, C
I have a low score on the IAT for anti-X associations
I love X, an X saved my life in Iraq
I donate to charities that primarily help X folk
Haha, yeah, right [insert funny joke or self-deprecating humor as countersignaling]
I participated in the boycott against anti-Xers
Look at my demographic characteristics: in surveys and IAT studies people of my occupation, education level, religion, and political affiliations show low levels of racism, so your prior for me being racist should be low