Taking the low road and then a detour

I've never encountered something like I did earlier this week. Usually you see racism on the streets, I've seen it in stores where I would be followed until I give up and just leave the store or be continuously asked if i need help when I'm clearly capable of figuring out if I want a t-shirt that says 'Peace and Love' or one that says 'Rock Star' on it.
A couple of days ago I asked a question on YA (yahoo answers), it was a harmless question, all I asked was 'Do you randomly IM people?'. Now I asked this because on YA if you reach a certain level your yahoo aim address is shown for people to see. And I have recieved many random IM's. So I just thought it wold be an ok question to ask, kind of like a poll.
So later on that day I was checking my yahoo mail and a random IM popped up. And I'm not a mean person, if someone wants to talk I'll talk, I like meeting new people (which is a new depvelopment for me). So this guy, I forget his name now, he IM's me, and he seems pretty cool, and he was kind of flirtatious. Anyways were talking and learning a little bit about each other when I ask him what natonality he is (it doesn't really matter to me, I was just trying to get to know the guy) he says Italian, and I tell him I'm Haitian. Once he gets wind that I'm actually black he goes to say black skin is a turn off. Now at this moment I'm mad because that is an insult to me. But instead of rashing him I just say it's whatever everyone has their own prefrences (I have my own as well, but hey a guy is a guy to me). So I say bye, and then he says a comment that enrages me, so I go on a whirlwind of curse words and insults and basically tear him a new one. I could tell by the last few words he said he felt defeated and he said bye and signed off.
Now some people would say 'You go girl!' or 'He got what he deserved!' but by the end of the conversation I felt terrible. Instead of taking the high road (which was my intended plan) I stooped to his level, which didn't make me a better person, but made me just like him. In that ten minutes after the conversation ended my conscious was eating at me. Not only did I seem childish but I seemed racist with the few choice words that I said to him. And thats not me, I am not a racist and I never use swears to prove a point, I try to use the words that I learned in SAT prep not to long ago.
I felt like I should do something, something that would set things right in my heart and head. So I decided to write him a well thought out letter saying how the way he approached me was rude and that I shouldn't have said the choice words as I had because it made me seem like the type of person I am not, and that I wasn't writing the letter to get in his good graces (because he was being an ass nonetheless). I don't know if the guy read that letter, in fact I really don't care, I just had to get it off of my chest.
I have met some really nice white guys, some were really sweet and some were really good friends to me, but meeting that one guy almost made me change my mind about all of them. But I realized that all those guys that I knew had grown up and changed their views and this guy was just stuck in the stone age.