"I can't be racist. I'm friends with _______."

Whitney

Has anyone been that token friend? I have basically been the token friend my entire life. Like, now, I have friends that clearly do not like black people, but are friends with me because I am "proper". One of my friends' family speaks to me horribly. I have had them wake me up saying "why is there a n___er in the house?", I've had them tell me I should be hanging from a tree, they've told me my hair is "too nice" so it must be fake, and plenty of other things. These are their "jokes". The jokes I have had to put up with for seven years. I didn't mind before, but within the past 3 or 4 years, these "jokes" have become excessive. I can't be around them without them mentioning my race. A few months ago, my friend's cousin said that black people were "dirty", but I was an exception because I'm "classy". I was too dumbfounded to respond. I couldn't believe she would actually say something like that to my face and mean it. By the way, my friends are all Hispanic. I tell them their comments are racist remarks, but they say the infamous line:

"I can't be racist. I'm friends with you."

I have heard that line my entire life. I have had friends say horrible things about me and the black community, but when I call them out on it, they tell me it isn't racist because they are friends with me. I have always been afraid to tell my friends that I hate the things they say about me, but then they would call me "sensitive" and "annoying".

Has anyone else had friends like this? If you aren't currently friends with these people anymore, was it hard to let them go?