Finding it hard to respond to this. Racism has two definitions, the academic/original version which is about our systems and society and the more common view. Which is where we all think racism is just about skin colour and calling people names.
Racism is in everything, we built our entire Western civilization on it. Reparations to slave owners were finally paid off by Britain in 2015.
The influence of the States is good and bad. Its easy to see racism built into American society, it truly is everywhere. Almost everything that affects the average American today is because of racism. Its actually insane; car dependency, lack of universal healthcare, poor public school systems, student loans and so on. Almost everything that causes people to be exploited or is just bad for society (in the US) can trace its way back to racism and the systems involved in keeping people in a certain place.
Unfortunately, I think researchers look at the states and apply those conditions onto the UK. Its harder to see that in Europe/UK because very few slaves were brought back to Europe. I think the UK and Ireland have the soft version of racism where we have certain beliefs about black people but we aren't overt about it. As far as systems of oppression go I don't think there is anywhere near that level in the UK simply because you didn't need to build it. Thats where I think these researchers fuck up, they forget the context of how society was formed outside the states.
Southern Europe is overt about their racism, we see that in football in Spain and Italy.