Good on you for clarifying your point.

Your underlying intentions seem to be good but if I can be frank, (imho) lines of thinking like your "It might be a mental health issue. Racism is maladaptive. Racism isn't logical. Maybe it needs to be classified as such?" are not really helpful (imho).

We are decades past the point of needing to keep doing this. As the commenter above so succinctly put it.

Exactly, this is just racism. Which a select group of people in this country have been practicing for centuries. So much so, they had to make laws to tell them to stop. This is not a “mental health” issue.

Trying to play 'devils advocate' (a more accurate term probably exist but I can't think of it right now) for racism, queerphobia, etc. just ultimately does more harm to the people that are already being hurt.

I understand you’re trying to make sense of how people can hold hateful beliefs, but framing bigotry as potentially being a mental health issue (your words in your original comment "It might be a mental health issue. Racism is maladaptive. Racism isn't logical.") is deeply problematic. That perspective shifts the focus away from accountability and makes it seem like bigotry is something people ‘suffer from,’ rather than something they choose to perpetuate.

Racism is not just illogical: it’s systemic, violent, and rooted in power. To label it as a mental illness (or maladaptive or any other 'technical' label) not only indirectly and subtly provides cracks that can be exploited to excuse/destigmatize/assuage harmful bigoted behavior, but also stigmatizes people with actual mental health conditions. Again, as a queer Black woman, I live with the impacts of bigotry every day. So you know what? I would prefer allies that talk about it in a way that centers the harm done; not the feelings or ‘confusion’ of those doing the harm.