Perceived racism is the only racism that exists - as with all bigotry, it is a matter of context and perception. I strongly disagree with your implication that “perceived racism” is somehow fake or unimportant. If something is offensive to someone, then guess what… it’s offensive! Even if you, with any privilege you may or may not enjoy, don’t quite understand it.

Nobody can decide that something is objectively offensive to all members of a given group, but by the same token, nobody can decide that something is merely ‘perceived’ as offensive in opposition to ‘truly’ offensive. If it seems I’m getting hot and bothered over word choice, that’s because “perceived racism” is a common conservative weasel word used to undermine objections to racist things without explicitly saying “it’s not racist”. At worst, you’re actively participating in this; at best, you’re unwittingly using hateful conservative rhetoric.