Went to Best Buy today while wearing my Trump 2020 shirt. A black man was in line behind me and said
"Hey big man, I love your shirt!" My wife then told him, "yeah, a lot of people tell him that." Guy in line behind him looked shocked that a black man would like my shirt.
And the guy in line behind him who looked shocked is a through and through racist.
I think it has more to do with Pavlov's dog than to racism. We're all conditioned to expect certain results.