many people think that it only exists at the level of individual actions, like calling someone a slur, and not at a systemic level

Is this not just lack of abstract thinking?

• Direct racism has a straightforward cause and effect. It is clearcut, simple to understand, and easy to place yourself in a role and distinguish right from wrong
• systemic racism has multiple steps and indirect causes. There may be no clear culprit, no direct causes, or primarily historical causes. Some of us can see reality and have the empathy to distinguish what is wrong. Others can see the abstracted perpetrators or web of steps to better understand a complex situation resulting in wrongs . But some people have a harder time with abstraction, with there not being a clearly identified cause, without a specific action to blame