Yes, negative/exclusionary dating preferences are racism

Basically, if someone says “I prefer Japanese people because they have cute faces,” (inclusionary, non-absolute statement) that is valid, but you see, the opposite can’t not be racist. “I don’t prefer Nigerian men because they’re ugly” doesn’t work out to be anything but based on negative stereotypes and biases.

Some arguments you see online are “well that means gay people are sexist). No, because they’re biologically gay. Are you biologically racist against Nigerians? No, it’s mostly sociocultural. Some sociocultural reasons can be valid because of the reality of groups of people, but it’s different from hard biases based on skin color or ethnicity. The extra layer beyond this is that all people are actually born racist and preferring people that look like themselves. That could be true. But an argument saying that racism is biological doesn’t argue against the state of racism the people are engaging in.