"One of the aspects of our racist heritage is the idea that white people are individuals, and the rest of us are just groups of "others"."  
Never thought about it in this way., but after pondering it and looking back over my own life, I think there is truth (at least for me)in what you say. The exceptions always being when I got to personally know individuals from a different racial heritage than my own. Do you think Blacks, or do you personally, tend to see it the same way, except the other way around?  Blacks as individuals and whites as a group of "others"? 
Is it a cultural thing or are our minds "wired" to more easily see the individual differences in people of our own racial group as opposed to "others" from which we're not descended?