Preference vs racism there's a difference

I was talking with my friends recently, and I also happened to have seen a post on reddit too, so I assume it's the best time to spark this issue up.

Bro ... Racism is different from preference.

For some reason my friends and I were talking about marriage, I said that I wanted a fair/light brown woman as my wife, and one of my friends started accusing me of being racist. People need to understand that if I would have said that dark skinned people are not worthy of marriage, or that they are not worthy of being on a authoritative position in a company, or that they are dirty ... THAT IS RACISM.

I have had plenty of dark/dark brown friends all my life, I am in connect with them real good too. My colleagues, respected teachers, I love them in general But if it's about MY spouse, MY life partner, the woman who is entitled to the rest of my life ... You cannot call me a racist when I prefer someone who does not happen to be dark skinned. Like hello ? How can you force me to love someone with whom I'm not attracted to like that.

I've said it clearly I want a highly educated, tall(since I'm 6 feet), athletic(I love sports and gym), preferably fair / light brown skinned woman with whom I can hold philosophical and beautiful conversations.

I think every person has all rights to their preferences and forcing them to love someone/ shaming their preferences is totally stupid and senseless.

Like if I'm not attracted to plus succeed women, who are not athletic that doesn't mean that i hate them, it just means i would love to be your friend but not your partner.