re: The Ole Miss counter-protest from yesterday is completely riling up the Left

Your definition is subjective to each individual and is therefore ready-made to change based on perception and intended outcomes of any situation. Someone who has no concept of the monkey and black person connection would be a racist to you and have no idea why. To define such a ubiquitous term in such an ambiguous and subjective way only serves to turn a concept into a defensive attack.

This kid chose to insult the woman based on her race (probably.) That's just a targeted insult and nothing more as far as anyone knows. It's not racism.

Eta
To spare the feelings of some here, this works the other way too. A black woman calling a white kid a racist cracka arse cracka doesn't mean she's by default a racist. It just means she customized her insult based on an observed trait of her target. It doesn't mean she isn't a racist, but it's dramatic to make that the standard.