Martin

The Ku Klux Klan possesses no ideology. They are merely racists.
The Black Panthers were Marxist-Leninist and Maoist.
Orthodox Jewish sects are based on interpretations of the Torah and other texts which no
educated person would define as racist.
Racism is a vile mixture of ignorance and hatred

It's also often a matter of a person's opinion as to what kind of remark is racist or non-racist. If we want to 'split hairs' then stating that the KKK are racists is, in itself, a 'racist' remark (if you look up the legal definition of 'racism')
Personally, I think the word is completely over-used and people use it as-and-when-it suits them.

I teach 'Civics' to high school students so 'racism' is a part of their course, and I do my best to explain it to them in the simplest way possible (yet that is not so easy given the huge 'area' that the word 'racism' can cover.
Essentially I teach them that human beings have essentially 2 types of things to deal with in their life.
The ones they have control over and the ones they don't
So it may be OK to call someone a 'stupid idiot' for something they have done (because they have control), but NOT to call them a 'stupid Chinese idiot' because they have no control over their ethnicity

But then we can take that one-step further and use religion as an example. Do people CHOOSE to be religious or are they 'born' religious? (well you know the answer to that), but herein lies the problem to my own argument. Do people CHOOSE to 'believe' in something or not?

Calling someone a 'stupid Christian' COULD be considered totally different to calling someone a 'stupid Muslim' for instance, simply because we THINK that western people have the freedom-of-choice as to whether they follow a faith or not. Try wearing a T-shirt in Saudi Arabia with the words 'Mohammed told me that all his followers are lunatics' and see how long you stay safe.

'Racism' has many forms, but most importantly 'abusing someone because of their race, sex, or belief' - they have no control over their race or sex - but belief?

In other words, if a member of the KKK CHOOSES to be a member (of his own volition), then by all means call him a 'racist' - but if he is a member of the KKK because of some ingrained belief system, then by definition, calling him a 'racist' is a racist remark. So how do you know? - You DON'T !