Racist is when you say something about a group of people (a group that lumps the people together by race) that you wouldn't say about another group of people. Usually the comment is negative, but not always.
A very good example is calling someone white trash. The very term white trash, means that ordinarily white people are not trash. You see, if a person is trash, they're trash. Race has nothing to do with it.
But let's use your own quotes as an example, which btw, is painfully obvious to most, so I'm not sure why you can't see it. Wait, wait... yes of course I'm sure why you can't see it. You've got your lefty blinders on. Those blinders, Octavia, allow democrats (a very rough grouping I'm using for the sake of illustration) to say and do the most horribly racist things, all the while believing they're not racist.
Here we go...
"Saying that conservatives want to put black people back in chains is racist, how?
"Making a joke about people of Indian descent working at 7-Eleven is racist, how?
In neither of those comments did he say that black or Indian people are inferior to white people or anything like that."
First quote: To say that, is using race as a weapon against another group of people who are not in the same group as those referenced in the quote. Would you at least agree that putting Black people in chains is racist? If so, then using a racist statement as a tool to make your point is about as racist as it gets.
Second quote: This one is beyond obvious, which actually makes it harder to explain to someone like you, who is in total racism denial. Maybe an illustrative comment of a similar nature would make the point for me? Let's say that you made a joke about Mexican people working as black people all working at some kind of similar job. Let's get real racist (so you can identify) and say the joke was about black basketball players and how you get them to stop raping a white woman. (sure, throw in some misogyny...) I'm sure you've heard that joke, but if you haven't, it should be easy for you to find. So that's a very similar joke about black people, and I'm curious to find out if you think it's racist, and if not, why not.
Your comment: so *that* is your threshold for racism? So, without the inclusion of white people, or "or anything like that" is a required element for you to consider something racist? Un-freaking-believable.