The Romans weren't really racist in the modern sense. In fact, the City of Rome appears to have been founded by a mixed gang of exiles and outlaws from a number of different tribes. They had to invent their own tribes in the early years in order to run the city as they felt it should be run.
They took slaves, like everyone else, but it wasn't a racial issue. And eventually Britons and Gauls could become Romans.
The Jews were different because they were stubborn about their religion. And they wanted to crucify Jesus because they thought his claim to be the Messiah was blasphemous.
Pontius Pilate had to agree for political reasons, because if he didn't go along he would have lost his job, accused by the Jews of being soft on revolutionaries.