I want someone to mow my lawn and I insist that they're African American. Is that racist?
Honestly I'd have to ask your reasoning behind it.
Again theirs a lot of levels to this stuff that most just plain don't want to go into. Lots a nuance .Also racism has just become this dog whistle people like to use to shut people up when they say something they don't like or disagree with them. Like how peoel call Trump a racist all the time even though they can't really point out a single time he was a legitimate racist. And in my book legit racism is harmful.
If you came to me and said I prefer white guys or black guys or Mexicans working one my house or tractor or whatever first question would be :WHY.
Now if you explained that every black crew you've had was just absolute crap and gave examples, ok fair. Might be because that demographic of works in your area just generally don't do good work for reasons XYZ. At that point it's not " I CANT STAND DARKIES AND DONT WANNA GIVE THEM ANYTHING" it's just from experience you've been shown they don't work well .
If you said your prefer a white crew and just said " well I really want to support white owned businesses in my area " I mean ok I guess that fair
If you said Mexicans because all the ones you seen and delt with are super fast efficient and you have good luck . Fine ,cool. I don't really see any type of harmful racism in that for the most part.
Now if you said " I want a black guy cutting my lawn because I like seeing them work under me" then umm...yeah I'd be like

And then we can go back to some people just plain being more comfortable dealing with people who look like them or they feel when understand them. And honestly I've seen this so much when people say their not like that but you throw them into a situation where they have to option their naturally going to gravitate that way. And this ain't be defending that person in OP's original post but the thought process as a whole.
So me as a trapper, if you plop me down in an outdoor convention and I don't know anyone but I see other people who obviously look like their trappers I will naturally gravitate to them . Gimme a few a few guys that are all gunsmiths and I need work and I learn one guy is a trapper then yes I will probably gravitate towards them at first. Why ? Because theirs the common whatever. Hay he's a trapper he might better understand ABCD I need.
Another example my GF who is white. Love her to death were gonna be getting married soon so I know she's not racist but if given the option she's more comfortable with with another white person doing her hair. Why because their certain things alot of black hair stylists don't get about white hair that just common and understood to white people . And trust me I've seen how uncomfortable and somtimes pretty weird it will get. So I can't really say that racism.
Me , I've just about only have dated white women because generally we end up having more in common. Most stuff I'm interested in way more white women are interested in them black women as a majority ( sorry but you or that one gil you knew a while back are not majority, something else alot of people seem to forget). Does that make me racist? Personally I don't thinks so. At that point is just playing averages and compatibility.
Now if you're just doing it because you hate other races or think yours is superior then yeah that's some harmful crap. It if you just wanna support other people of your race , you just plain more comfortable for whatever reason
I mean if you want to try and super simplify stuff then yes you can call about any and everything racist. That what people seem to do now constantly. Very few want to have a legit discussion about this seems more then anything people just like to have their time in the sun of constant " well if they said this then I can say this haha"